Changes and Revelations
by DeathsDragon
Summary: Hi Skool. That time in your life where everything seems to change from week to week, when a few short sentences can destroy your entire world. But its also a time of learning, about yourself and those around, even if you'd have been happier remaining ignorant. ZaDr (eventually) Bit dark later on. Weekly update.
1. Chapter 1

**Changes and Revelations.**

This is my first fic in this subject and I hoped to do my best to keep the characters in character, while making them seem to have grown and matured a bit. Only a bit.

Please enjoy, it is ZimxDib, so if you don't like, don't read. There will also be mild torture in the later chapters, along with extreme views (ones that aren't matched by myself). Once again please enjoy, no flames.

Thank you.

* * *

**Chapter One.**

_Alone._

_From childhoods hour I have not been_

_as others were; I have not seen_

_as others saw; I could not bring_

_My passions from a common spring._

_From the same source I have not taken_

_my sorrow; I could not awaken_

_my heart to joy at the same tone;_

_And all I loved, I loved alone._

_Then -in my childhood, in the dawn_

_of a most stormy live- was drawn_

_from every depth of good and ill_

_The mystery which binds me still:_

_From the torrent, or the fountain,_

_From the red cliffs of the mountain,_

_From the sun that round me rolled_

_In its autumn tint of gold,_

_From the thunder and the storm,_

_And that cloud that took the form_

_(When the rest of Heaven was blue)_

_Of a demon in my view._

_Edgar Allen Poe._

Dib looked at the words on the page before him as he sat in the library, the soft silence surrounding him. Thankfully, this was one of the few places where he could find some peace and quiet, no kids or teachers, no bullies, nothing. Just one ageing librarian, Miss Daisy-May, that would leave you alone so long as you didn't do anything to try and harm a book, if you tried to do anything so barbarian as draw on a book or damage a page, she'd be on you like a demon from the pits of hell.

But since Dib respected books and knowledge, there was never any chance of him doing anything to get chased out. Miss Daisy-May didn't even mind that he would eat his lunch in the library, since he'd pointed out on day one of Hi Skool, that he only had sandwiches in his lunch and drinks were always bottled so avoid spillages.

Odd really that that was were he had first spotted the changes in his arch-enemy, Zim.

The little Irken was not so little any more, but he'd never manage to hit the heights of a normal human. His five foot two frame was still as thin as ever, but Dib knew not to underestimate him -unlike others since they'd entered Hi Skool. Then again, Dib wasn't the short little weed he used to be. Now he was a tall five foot nine, tall enough to tower over many of the other students but he was still as thin and wiry as he been as a young teenager, only now he was stronger. He may be thin, but he was strong. The constant battles over the years with Zim, had shaped his body into a better fighting machine that many people realised.

That was part of it though, he'd thought. When he'd first been reading up on a poem for English Lit -Alone, by Edgar Allen Poe- and it'd struck him how similar the references were between himself and the poem. About not being the same as the others around him, about seeing a demon in his view.

He'd always hated Zim, always thought of him as the evil alien Invader, despite evidence to the contrary. The fighting was no less vicious, no less painful or deadly. In fact, it had only gotten worse as the pair of them had grown in strength and mind, using various plots to try and capture or cripple each other. Dib's reflex's weren't on par with Zim's, but they weren't slow enough to get him killed either. He knew that given a chance, Zim would kill him.

But then doubt had entered his mind. Would Zim kill him?


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

* * *

But then doubt had entered his mind. Would Zim kill him?

His paranoia screamed that the green skinned demon would slice him apart the first chance he got. Yet logically, there had been hundreds of times when Zim could have just killed him, shot him, sliced him, strangled him. But the demon alien hadn't.

It wasn't the only change he come to realise. They were in their third year of Hi Skool, with one more year to go before ultimate freedom was granted, and over that time, Zim didn't shout as much as he'd used to. In fact, since that scary time when they had both nearly died due to that bloody PAK detaching from Zim and attaching to him, Dib, the Irken had stopped shouting so much. It had been near the end of there last year in Skool, before the long summer that would see them both start to grow, in-spite of the constant duelling.

* * *

There had been the day that he'd broken into Zim's base on a Saturday, determined to find out once again what it was that the alien was working on, but the base had been... wrong. Gir had been silent, sat in a corner of the living room and looking like he was powered down. The little robot had still been turned on, because when Dib had walked across the room, Gir had turned his head and watched him. It had freaked him out but he'd just put it down to the normally erratic behaviour of the thing.

He'd gotten to the elevator and after watching it for a few minutes, he'd ridden the smooth ride down to the base underneath. Once there, he picked up again that something was wrong. While it hadn't ever been the most well lit of places, mostly being purple and black, with the odd pink light for difference, something about the place that day, had made it seem... darker.

Nothing was turned on. There were a few lights here and there, but the whole place felt like someone had hit the power button and everything was left running on automatic. But despite the creepy atmosphere, Dib had continued on moving forwards, taking care where he put his feet and how he moved, trying his best to be silent.

When he'd made it the short distance to the main Computer, the over large screen was blank, the control board in front of it was turned off. The chair was still in front of the computer and from his angle, Dib could see that Zim was slumped in the comfy seat, his head buried in his claws.

They were enemies.

But something about that figure, slumped over and sitting in a silent, un-powered base had spoken to him. Dib had spent many nights, slumped in his own computer chair in the dark, filled with despair, for himself and his world in general. So he'd approached Zim.

Dib had moved across to Zim, not even taking care to be quiet now. He'd put a hand on the back of the chair and turned it so he could see the alien properly, a sudden irrational worry that he'd find Zim dead flitted threw his mind, but once he'd laid eyes on him, he knew Zim was still alive. Alive but dead somehow.

The Irken was like a ghost of his former self, pale and empty seeming. For his small size, Zim had always managed to project an aura of 'largeness' around himself, making himself seem bigger than he really was, louder and more noticeable. Not now.

"Zim?" His voice had sounded strange in that place. The air had seemed to suck all the sound out of it, making his word's seem muffled. "Zim? What's wrong?"

The short alien hadn't moved, hadn't even seemed to register what was being said or the fact that his arch nemesis was right in front of him. So Dib had knelt down in front of him and waited. After a few minutes, he'd reached out and ever so lightly brushed a finger against the back of Zim's hand, too cautious to touch his shoulder or anything else. It had seemed to stir some life into him, and Zim had pulled back slightly, only enough to be away from that finger.

A string of Irken had tumbled from Zim's mouth then and Dib had no idea what it had meant. But the tone, the inflection on those words had been despair.

"Zim, your going to have to speak English if you want me to help you," he'd said and afterwards, he'd felt like an idiot for saying something like that. But he'd sat there and waited still, there were a few more sentences in Irken, but now they were spoken in a flat and lifeless tone like Zim was trying to explain something to him. Dib had sat threw them all, watching as Zim didn't uncurl from his seat, didn't remove his claws from his face, he just sat there and occasionally spoke in a language Dib didn't understand.

After a while there was silence again, and this time Dib got the impression that whatever Zim had been trying to say to him was done. So he shifted and leaned as close as he dared without touching the alien, "okay then Zim. But if you need me to do anything else, so long as its not going to destroy the Earth, just come and find me."

With those words, he'd gotten back to his feet and walked out the base. Something had been wrong and leaving the way he had, had made him feel empty inside. It wasn't the fact that something was bothering Zim, he'd told himself at the time, it was just so unusual to just calmly walk out of Zim's base, that it felt wrong.

Dib had come back to the base the next day and it had been locked up. There were metal shutter's over the windows and it looked more like a bomb shelter than a house, and no amount of searching or banging and shouting, could get the alien to open up. It remained locked up like that for a week, and every day, before and after school, Dib would go there and try to get in. He'd bang the window's, kick the doors and just shout.

Then, on the Sunday, he'd been coming back from the shop, a bag of snacks in hand and an open soda in the other, when he'd been attacked by Zim. Whatever had happened, either a failed take over plot or some other aliens, it seemed to have passed now. The green alien had been as arrogant and loud as always, denouncing Dib-Stink and all Hyumans, proclaiming how he was better than the inferior dirt-monkey's.

* * *

It was one of the first time's Dib remembered Zim not announcing that he would take over the earth and destroy it. There had been no stop in the plots to destroy the place of course, no end of weird plans or attacks for Dib to stop or defend.

And it wasn't until a few months ago, when he'd been sitting in the library thinking, that'd he'd finally realised that Zim didn't seemed to give a rats ass about trying to take over the world any more. Dib had wandered into the library at his usual time and had been heading over to his normal table in the reference section when he'd passed one of the little alcoves made by the book shelves. Sitting at the table there, was Zim. It was the history section and the only book missing from the shelves around him, was part of a larger collection that denoted most of the events of history. Zim was reading about things that had happened nearly a hundred years ago, but that was just it; he was sat there, quietly reading, not taking notes or talking to himself about things or anything, just reading.

It had had him puzzled, Dib knew. But it was then that he'd started to ask himself questions, properly ask himself things, not just jump to his normal conclusions or deductions based on the events going on around him. No, he'd sat down and thought about things carefully. He and Zim still fought on a daily basis, still taunted one another and attacked with little provocation, and the bruise on his shoulder from that mornings fight was evidence that Zim wasn't going easy on him.

Then there was the fact that Zim was adapting to earth culture and society. He'd stopped wearing the usual red Irken uniform on his first day of Hi Skool, instead he'd turned up in black skinny jeans and a fitting long sleeve red t-shirt. Not exactly different but it was a big enough change for others in the skool to notice Zim again, to notice that even though he was green, he wasn't a scrawny little loud mouth.

Zim had stopped shouting and jumping on tables, he was still weird and spoke oddly but it wasn't enough to get him real grief. Well, not after the first time someone had tried to beat him up, Dib had thought with a smile. For some reason, it had been almost gratifying to watch the Irken beat on someone else for a change, especially after he'd been attacking Dib most of the summer. Everyone had given the new green kid a wide berth after that first episode, but there had been a few others since then.

So back to now, with Dib staring at the poem before him once more and wondering how he was supposed to write an essay on 'the delusions of individualism in Poe's work', when he clearly empathised with the piece he'd been given. What could he write about it? He thought with a touch of panic, but then realisation came to him. What did it matter?

Despite the constant fighting, the regular spying on Zim and being spied on by Zim, Dib Membrane was a perfect student, a straight A Grade in every class. It had the mixed blessing of making the teachers both leave him alone and not torment him, but also not step in to defend the smart ass when the other kids got physical with there bullying. He'd been beaten up dozens of times in the years since he'd started Hi Skool, but it only happened when he was badly out numbered and they'd managed to grab him. Most of the time, he would escape somehow and just run.

So, what did it matter if he wrote what he thought for once? Instead of what the teacher expected him to write? An wicked grin crawled across his lips then as he'd stared at the words once more, memorizing them easily, before he snickered evilly and flipped open his note book.

A thudding sound made him look up.

Zim was standing a few meters away, staring at Dib with wide eyes and slightly agape mouth after having just dropped a book. Dib shot the alien a confused look, raising one eyebrow for emphasis before Zim had blinked and glared at him, bending down and scooping up the book into his claws with ease.

"What are you looking at, Dib-thing?" He snapped, his voice low but carrying easily in the quiet of the library, his resorting to the old insult was proof that something had unsettled him.

"The idiot that just dropped a book," Dib replied with a smirk before dropping his eyes to the page before him, pen in hand. He wrote a few quick lines before he glanced up and watched Zim. The alien had scowled at him and then turned away, reaching out to put the book back on the shelf he'd gotten it from before heading back to the little alcove Dib had first spotted him sitting in.

There had been no argument, no loud shouts or snide words. The library was an unspoken neutral ground, since it was a haven for them both from the other students and being banished by Miss Daisy-May for fighting, would be hell.

Turning his attention to the work before him, he had a page and a half written, with only a summary to go before the end of the lunch break. Nodding to himself, Dib shut the book and tucked it away in his bag for review later on, it wasn't like it was due in for another three weeks. Getting up and heading for the door, he blinked in surprise to see that Zim was still sitting at his table, nose seemingly buried in the book before him.

With a shrug, he changed his course and headed over to the alcove, "hey Zim, its nearly time for class," he said casually, leaning on the bookshelf next to him.

Zim, with his black wig -a newer design that blended in better than the old one but was still, nevertheless, a wig- and contacts, it was only his light green skin that marked him as different now. Today's clothes were a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and a black fitting long sleeve t-shirt, simple but it worked, Dib mused, especially since the t-shirt clung enough to reveal the flat planes of Zim's chest and abs, while hinted at a collar bone without showing it. Easy on the eyes, Dib mused, then frowned.

Looking up, Zim blinked in confusion then looked at his watch and grimaced. "Do we have to return back to the torture of class gathering?" He asked in a pained whine, closing the book before him and returning it to the shelf near by.

"Yes, we have to go to home room," Dib replied with a roll of his eyes, but his tone wasn't any more cheerful. He hated class as much as Zim, especially home room. "If you skip again your gonna have to have a detention and you know it."

Zim straightened and moved over to Dib, "those pitiful teachers can only make a passing attempt to control Zim, they have no real power over me and that fact eats away at them daily!" He tilted his chin up as he spoke, his usual arrogance in full flow. Dib only smiled to himself and rolled his eyes, it was rare for Zim to refer to himself in the third person any more, but it wasn't uncommon.

Once they were out of the library and walking along the corridor, Zim suddenly slammed Dib in the arm with his fist and snickered as Dib failed to dodge the Irken's speed. "What the hell?" Snapped Dib, still upright since the blow hadn't been enough to knock him down, but now holding onto his arm and glaring at the alien.

"That was for calling me an idiot earlier," sneered Zim, narrowing his eyes at Dib. It seemed no more words were needed now, as Dib balled his hand into a fist and swung it round at the alien.

Twenty minutes later saw them both sat in front of there home room teacher, Mr Ike, while the rest of the class filed out and snickered at them, calling back insults the pair ignored with practised ease. They were both scruffy looking and covered in a few new bruises since they'd been fighting in the corridor outside again.

"Detention! For you both!" Roared the teacher, his face going an interesting shade of red/purple. "Now get out before your late for French."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three.**

* * *

"Detention tonight! For you both!" Roared the teacher, his face going an interesting shade of red/purple. "Now get out before your late for French."

Dib had held his tongue and flicked a glance at Zim out the corner of his eye, wandering if the Irken would be clever enough not to insult the teacher and make his mild punishment worse. Staying an hour after Hi Skool was annoying but no real trouble for either of them, if antagonised, Mr Ike was likely to apply further detentions and for a longer period of time.

Zim only hissed under his breath and looked away as they both got to their feet. Once out in the corridor, Zim glared at Dib now, "your foolishness caused me to still get a detention, despite your attempts to prevent it in the library! Why did you bother, if you were going to sabotage me anyway?"

Dib blinked at the words, surprised at both Zim's almost eloquence and the question itself. He enjoyed getting Zim into trouble, especially since it was harder to do when most of the teachers and students seemed to be either afraid of or respect the alien.

"Its not like I did it on purpose," replied Dib with a frown, looking down at Zim. "If I'd done it on purpose, then I wouldn't have gotten myself in detention with you. Now I've got to waste an hour after Skool, stuck in a room with you!"

"Ah, I see your scheme now," countered Zim, folding his arms and doing his best to look down his nose at someone taller than him. Somehow he managed to pull it off, despite not seeming to have a proper nose, and being shorter than Dib. "You want to spend time with me, and detention is a pliable excuse for our time together."

"I do not want to spend time with you Zim," snapped Dib while their feet carried them on to French class. His paranoid mind had once speculated on the fact that he and Zim had identical timetables, until some logical side of his mind and pointed out that they were both the top students in the school, taking the top classes. Of course their timetables would match.

"Lies," snickered Zim, suddenly seeming to find the prospect amusing, "if the lowly Dib wanted to spend time with me, he had only to ask. Not get us thrown into detention."

"I do not want to spend time with you," Dib almost shouted, then looked around hurriedly, but no one was paying there usual drama and kind of attention. He glared at Zim and lowered his face until they were inches apart, he hissed, "I don't know what's going threw that crazy head of yours space-boy, but I not enjoy spending time with you."

But Zim just smirked, a lazy cocky zippered smile that made Dib almost flinch back as heat flooded his face. What was that about? He thought with sudden alarm, as Zim opened his mouth to say something else. Dib was saved from listening, by the bell going off right above his head and making him flinch from the loud sound by reflex.

French class dragged. Then so did Social Studies after it. A subject that not even Dib was sure they really should have to sit, since there was little to learn and no tests. It was mostly being told about things, like different religions, difference cultures and other aspects of society. There was a faint chance of the subject being interesting, when they'd been told what to expect on the first day of Hi Skool, he'd been keen to learn. His enthusiasm had been drowned by lacklustre teaching and the fact that it was the same curriculum taught every year.

In a different way thought, it had seemed to help Zim quite a lot. He'd come down off of his 'superiority cloud' long enough to actually learn something about the humans he lived among, Dib had even seen him taking notes.

Since it was a class were most the students usually went to sleep without the teacher even caring, Dib put the time to good use and finished off his homework on the Edgar Allen Poe poem. As he finished his summary, he looked back to the poem he'd written down on the page before his essay, written from memory, to keep his hand in.

_From childhoods hour I have not been_

_as others were; I have not seen_

_as others saw;_

Dib snorted silently to himself at that line. It was more true that the author could have ever realised when it was written. He'd never been like the others around him. Smarter to begin with, and the fact that he'd always seen the truth in things, always strived to know more about the unknown. Then there was the point that only he seemed to see Zim for who and what he really was... well, he had when Zim had first arrived. Invader Zim, the Irken alien. But now... he was more like, Zim the guy that I can't stop fighting with?

_I could not bring_

_My passions from a common spring._

_From the same source I have not taken_

_my sorrow; I could not awaken_

_my heart to joy at the same tone;_

_And all I loved, I loved alone._

That part made him wince slightly and his eyes moved over the last line again. 'All I loved, I loved alone'. His love the paranormal was still as strong as ever, and his membership to the Swollen Eyeballs was in as good a standing as ever, even if they did puzzle over his gradual switch from his 'Alien' research and over to more local occurrences. Oddly, no one had questioned it and his standing amongst his peers had risen over the last two years.

And in the previous lines, about not enjoying the same things as those around him? Some days he'd even wondered if he was really human, he had so little in common with other people his age. Or people in general it seemed.

_Then -in my childhood, in the dawn_

_of a most stormy live- was drawn_

_from every depth of good and ill_

_The mystery which binds me still:_

The mystery of Zim, he thought with a nod to himself, unable to stop his eyes flickering across the room to the alien's desk. Zim was sat, writing away on a pad with a pen and looking deeply involved in whatever he was working on, his features shifting slightly between a frown and a twisted smile and back again.

Was Zim still trying to take over the Earth? He'd not actually made any real attempts in ages, Dib realised. The last time he'd tried to take over the Earth, it had been by trying to control the world threw the internet. It hadn't been a hard plan to foil, he'd stalled the program in Zim's Computer with a program on his own computer, until he'd been able to break into Zim's lab and destroy the original program. That had been over fourteen months ago.

These days it seemed Zim was content to wait until Hi Skool was over and no one could stop him doing what he wanted, content to keep him self occupied by kicking Dib's ass instead till he was ready to destroy the Earth.

_From the torrent, or the fountain,_

_From the red cliffs of the mountain,_

_From the sun that round me rolled_

_In its autumn tint of gold,_

_From the thunder and the storm,_

_And that cloud that took the form_

_(When the rest of Heaven was blue)_

_Of a demon in my view._

Demon. Yes.

Zim was a demon, cold and ruthless. Intelligent and arrogant. But... he wasn't cruel. Dib felt something seem to tighten and relax in his chest at the same time, as he thought that. No, Zim wasn't cruel, not when you compared him to the casual cruelties that humans did to each other on a daily basis. The Irken was almost generous in his time and attention to Dib and even Gaz, on a rare handful of occasions.

Sighing, Dib cast a glance over his shoulder again and watched Zim working, oblivious to the fact he was openly staring. He didn't care. Half the class was asleep anyway. Zim was still working away on whatever it was, seeming to be jotting down calculations next to whatever it was that he'd drawn out. He was so engrossed that his scaled tongue was poking from between his lips while he worked... almost cute...

The ringing of the bell, to signal the end of class and Hi Skool, startled most of the class. Dib jumped and he saw Zim do the same thing, while a few of the other students that had actually fallen asleep, fell out of their chairs with fright.

"Alright, dismissed." Murmured the teacher, seemingly still asleep herself.

The students moved quickly, grabbing bags and almost charging towards the door and freedom, chattering and laughing loudly like they'd suddenly come back to life, after the sleepy silence of before. Dib didn't move too quickly, he wasn't keen to run to detention. But as stood up, someone elbowed him harshly and snickered, "saw you staring at your boyfriend, freak." Were the nasty words but the faceless student was gone before he could make a come back.

Dib ground his teeth together and reminded himself that he didn't want to fight the kids at his school, that he was supposed to be defending Earth, not helping bring it down. Although, there were moments -like now- when he wondered why the hell he bothered? They were stupid beyond belief and seemed to care little about others, thinking only of themselves and the enjoyment they could get from others, no matter how.

"Coming?" Asked Zim, snapping Dib out of his thoughts.

"Hm? Oh... yeah, detention." He sighed, slinging his bag onto his back before he trudged out of the room. "I wonder what its gonna be this time?" He said despondently.

"It's been a while since **I** had a detention," mused the Irken aloud, rubbing at his chin with his claws. "The last few times it was writing lines, other than that it was cleaning."

"Yeah, that's because you'd thrown food all over the place," reminded Dib with a grimace. Zim hadn't been the only one in trouble that day, most of there class had but Dib had seemed to get the real blame. At least, from the other students. He'd had to spend the next couple of weeks being careful and ready to run, when the others in his class had tried for some revenge.

"You were the one that started it all," exclaimed Zim, but his tone was still low enough to not yet be called shouting. His voice still echoed slightly in the near empty halls though. "If I remember correctly, you threw the first spoonful of food at me."

"No. You had decided that you didn't want to miss the rare opportunity of seeing me in the canteen," corrected Dib sarcastically. "You tripped me up and sent food flying everywhere, including all over my clothes. It was then that I flicked a spoonful of mash at you."

"It seems we can both agree that you were the one who threw the food first," smirked Zim, pushing open the door to there home room, where they'd be sitting detention today.

"Shut up Zim," snapped Dib with a frown. It seemed today was a day of revelations for him, he thought, he'd never realised how much he bantered with Zim. At least, between the fighting that was.

"Point to Zim."

Dib rounded on the shorter figure, hands balled into fists but he stopped himself as he saw the arrogant expression on Zim's face, the fact that his claws were open and ready, and he was smirking again. It was that look, Dib thought as he froze, his face colouring. That arrogant, cocky smirk! It wasn't like it was new or anything, Zim had always been an arrogant, narcissistic, cocky shit. But something about it now was different. How? Was it because he smiled instead of laughing manically?

"Sit down you two!"

Dib was saved from further action or embarrassment as Mr Ike walked into the room. The cocky smirk on Zim's face shifted into one of smug enjoyment, whether or not he understood why Dib had gone red, it still seemed he chalked it up to another victory for himself.

Turning around, Dib moved to his usual seat near the window and dropped down in it, blinking in surprise when Zim moved to take the desk next to him, instead of his usual one near the back. But he held his tongue instead of ordering the Irken to sit elsewhere, it would only cause trouble and Zim was likely to add it to his voctory tally.

"Alright you two," began Mr Ike, standing at the front of the room with his hands on his hips. He was a thickly built man, with high blood pressure that led to a constantly red face and enough of a gut that Dib guessed he'd be dead with heart failure in the next ten years. "I was going to have you do lines in silence, but I've been told by the school councillor that we're supposed to do something do encourage friendship and discourage fighting."

"Like what?" Asked Zim in a bored tone, his feet resting on the top of his desk, arms folded over his chest. The perfect image of disinterest and rebellion.

"You two are going to participate in a little game." Sneered Mr Ike, seeming to be enjoying himself about what he had in store. "You two have to put together a jigsaw puzzle. There will be no fighting, no arguing and you must cooperate with each other while it is done. The moment you are finished, you can leave."

Dib blinked slowly then turned his head to look at Zim, the pair shared a look, then looked back at the teacher. Challenge Accepted.

"How big is the puzzle?" Asked Dib calmly, folding his arms over his own chest.

Mr Ike lifted up a box. It wasn't a huge box and the picture it had on the front was almost appealing in its confusion, being one of those images of eleventy billion coloured sweeties. "It's two thousand pieces. You have an hour. Don't finish it and you'll be back here tomorrow." Mr Ike's expression would have been sadistic, if his red/purple features hadn't made him look more like an angry tomato.

"Looks pretty big," muttered Dib to Zim, not taking his eyes off of the box as Mr Ike put it down on his desk. "I'll get that board from the back of the room. You grab the box and have a good look."

"Agreed." Replied Zim with a nod. Their words were clipped and tight, neither trying to acknowledge the other while still working together. They got up, moving in opposite directions to retrieve what they needed before returning to the desks. Dib balanced the board between two desks and Zim opened the box, tipping the pieces out carefully before propping the box lid up on the desk in front of them.

"You have one hour boys," laughed Mr Ike before he sat down at his desk, his smile never quite fading as he turned his attention to the pile of papers on his desk.

Dib looked at Zim, "you know what we've got to do right?"

"Assemble the pieces so they match the image on the box," replied Zim with a frown. "Its not that hard to understand Dib-thing."

"Just checking." He snapped but closed his mouth before he could say anything else. He took a deep breath, held it a moment and then let it out again. "Okay. Seeing as they left us the box lid, this should be pretty easy."

"Agreed," nodded Zim, as their hands started to move threw the pieces. "Between the pair of us this should take no longer than twenty minutes."

"Agreed." Nodded Dib with a smirk.

While it was not something either liked to acknowledge, they had had to work together a few times, like when stopping Tak taking over Earth. Zim had only agreed to do so because he hadn't wanted to die, and Earth was his to take over, Dib hadn't cared so long as the Irken had helped. Dib couldn't keep the confident smirk off of his lips as they moved, quickly and precisely without having to say a thing. Compared to decoding Irken software or assembling weapons or even spaceships, this was a walk in the park.

Exactly eighteen minutes later, the pair leaned back from the board.

"Mr Ike," called Zim, across the empty classroom.

"What?" Snapped the teacher, looking up from his work.

"We're finished." Replied the alien, folding his arms over his chest and taking a step back from the jigsaw.

The teacher blinked but said nothing as he got to his feet and stamped over to the board. His eyes fell on the complicated image of billions of sweeties, a coloured mess that should have taken most people days to complete. But all two thousand pieces were assembled nice and neatly together.

Mr Ike looked up at the pair, angered further by seeing the smug expressions on there faces. "You cheated." He said at last.

"How?" Asked Dib flatly.

"I-I don't know." Snapped the teacher, glaring at the pair of them. His anger growing with the volume of his voice as he shouted now. "If you can do something like this when you work together, why do you spend so much time fighting?"

"Pfft, easy," snickered Zim, looking away and out the window. "Because we're so smart, its makes us alike. Because we're so alike, we can't stand each other."

Dib turned, "hey, I'm nothing like you." He demanded, glaring.

"See?" Smirked Zim, gesturing to the black haired teen. "Can we go now?"

"No."

"But you said we could leave once the jigsaw was done," pointed out Dib, purposely looking away from the alien and back at the teacher. "We were supposed to take forever to do it and be in detention for the rest of the week at least."

"No, you should have been in detention for the rest of the school year!" Roared the teacher, pointing a finger at them. "You pair fight constantly! There's no way you should be able to work together."

"So we can when we need to," sighed Dib with a roll of his eyes.

"Lets leave this place, Dib-stink," announced Zim arrogantly, turning on his heel and starting to move to the door.

"Couldn't agree more."

* * *

"We did work well back there."

Dib looked down at the green skinned alien walking besides him. Since they lived in the same neighbourhood and had left at the same time, it made sense to walk home together it seemed. Something seemed to be on Zim's mind, he was staring off into the distance.

"Yeah, its not like its anything that new," shrugged Dib dismissively.

"You have a point there," nodded Zim, still sounding distracted. "Maybe it would work out... if you..." He trailed off and started to mumble to himself, mostly in Irken.

Frowning now, Dib poked the alien in the shoulder, "Oi, what are you talking about?"

Zim finally turned his head to look up at Dib, seeming to be coming to a decision of some kind. "Since it has been proved that you are able to work successfully with the great Zim," he said archly, "and you seem to desire to spend time with me, I was speculating on the idea of including you in one of my great plans."

"Sod off Zim, I'm not helping you take over the world." Dib replied almost automatically, so automatically in fact that the words no longer had the bite that they used to in his younger days. Going back four or five years, he'd been so full of fire and passion. He had made himself Earth's defender against the alien Invader. But as the years had moved on, the Invader had grown bored of that idea and stopped trying to conquer, so in turn, the defender had grown tired of the fighting.

"When did I ever state that the plan I was relating to, was about taking over the world?" Asked Zim tartly, then he smiled that wicked smile again. "And you never denied that you want to spend time with me."

Dib's mouth open and shut wordlessly for a few minutes before he finally managed to summon up something to say. "Because its obvious that I don't!" He said but it came out more like a whine than a real denouncement and it just made Zim laugh. Something squirmed in Dib's chest at the light hearted laugh from the alien and he felt his cheeks colour again.

Silence fell between them both as they continued to walk down the street. But there was a growing tension and Dib could almost feel himself fidgeting in his growing need to ask what it was Zim had meant, what plan? But he knew that the Irken would add it as another victory to him if he gave in and asked!

"Dib," announced Zim, just as Dib's last shred of resistance was starting to crumble. He stopped walking and turned to look up at the taller human, since Dib had automatically stopped as well. "I will not be attending Hi Skool tomorrow. The necessary teachers have been informed. I'll be at my base, working on my plan. If you desire to find out, simply come along. Gir will be informed to expect you."

"What?" Asked Dib, shocked into stupidity. "What the hell are you planning? Why the sudden change?"

"If you'd been paying attention over the last few years, my friend Dib, then you would realise that I am no longer the Invader that I once was." Informed Zim, his voice almost empty of emotion as he spoke. "Come or not, the choice will be yours."

With that, Zim walked off down the street.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four.**

* * *

"If you'd been paying attention over the last few years, my friend Dib, then you would realise that I am no longer the Invader that I once was." Informed Zim, his voice almost empty of emotion as he spoke. "Come or not, the choice will be yours."

With that, Zim walked off down the street towards his house. Dib blinked in shock still and looked around dumbly, seeing that Zim had stopped once they had reached Dib's own house. And he'd not even realised, thought Dib, he'd been so focused on Zim that he'd not even been paying attention to his surroundings. That was sloppy of him!

Giving himself a shake, he turned and marched up the path, opening the door and almost slamming it behind himself in frustration. "Oi!" Snapped Gaz from the sofa, looking up momentarily from her Game Slave.

"Shove it," snapped Dib without thinking, stamping his way upstairs to quickly to hear whatever it was his sister had started to shout in reply. Once in his room, he dropped his bag on his desk and started to pace in the small space, his hands tucked behind his back while the end of his long black trench coat flapped as he moved and turned.

There had been too much today. Too many revelations, too much sudden understanding brought on by pulling his head out of his ass and actually looking around himself. He snarled under his breath and felt the anger bubble up again, he was angry at himself for allowing himself to fall so easily into the comfortable routine. It may have been a routine of near death fights and skool work, but it had been a routine nevertheless.

He'd been too comfortable to really look at what was happening around him, and worst of all, Zim had been the one to point it out to him! Zim! The champion of oblivious had made him aware of something!

What else had he missed? What else had he not noticed while he'd been bust obsessing over and fighting with Zim?

Thinking about it properly now, he understood that the fighting had become almost a shield against the world around him really. Maybe for them both, considering what Zim had just told him about no longer being an Invader. What if it was just a trap? Something to lure him into a false sense of security? But why would Zim bother with that? They both clearly enjoyed trying to kill each other, too much to actually kill the other.

And it was only a few hours ago that he'd noticed that Zim hadn't tried to take over the world in a long time, and while the plans over the last few years had been vicious, they had all had gaping holes in them. But that had been a trait of Zim's that matched himself; no matter what they tried to do, it always failed them somehow.

Growling in frustration, Dib idly wandered if he should go over to Zim's base now and demand some answers, demand to be told about this plan that Zim had mentioned to him, then argue that he should be involved in it no matter what, so then if it did end up being some way to take over the world, he would be there to stop it. Whatever it was, it would probably involve spending long hours in that creepy underground lab of his, the one that was purple and pink one day and then green and black the next. He'd never understood it, but since the layout never changed, what had it mattered?

Sorting threw his bag quickly, he dropped some of the skool things on his desk that he wouldn't need for tomorrow, left the rest inside and added his laptop and a small digital camera. He'd go over to Zim right now and talk to him.

"Children, I'm home!"

The voice echoed around the house as the the door slammed shut, and Dib froze in place. His dad was home? What the hell was his dad doing home? He'd not been properly home in months, he'd almost suspected that the man had moved out but not remembered to tell his offspring.

Slipping his bag onto his bag, making sure it was settled on both shoulders, Dib came out of his room and slowly moved over to the banister that over looked the living room. There he was, the tall figure in a white coat with that spike of black hair that matched his own. Gaz had stood up and moved around to the back of the sofa, standing before the man but saying nothing.

"Son, come on down here," called the Professor, turning his goggled face to look up at Dib. The teen swallowed and nodded, moving to the stairs and coming down them, despite how much he didn't want to. It wasn't anything stupid like he was afraid of his father, but the few times he'd come home in the last two years, he'd been... weirder than usual. Hard to imagine, Dib thought grimly, but he'd always had some weird tests in mind whenever he did come to visit his children.

"How have you both been?" Asked Professor Membrane, his tone a little too loud and his words sounding far too cheerful. "Is Hi Skool okay? Are your grades good?"

"Straight A's dad," sighed Dib.

"As perfect as ever," snapped Gaz.

"Good good!" Came the reply, there was a moment of silence before another thought made it to the surface of the Professors mind. "Do either of you have any... relationships going on?"

Dib's jaw dropped but Gaz just rolled her eyes, "never gonna happen," she sneered.

"I'm more likely to find Gaz interesting," added Dib, his sarcasm so think that not even Zim could have mistaken it.

"Really?" Asked the Professor, seeming surprised and delighted at the same time. "Well that is interesting."

The siblings shared a confused look then shrugged and looked back at there father.

"Was there anything else you wanted?" Asked Dib, almost desperately, "I really need to go out and-"

"I thought we could all go out together!" Announced there father, still seeming distracted but he always did when he was thinking about something. "I just need to make a note of something and then we can go out together, somewhere nice."

As the white coated man pulled a tablet computer from his pocket, Dib started to edge towards the door. Normally when his dad had to 'just make a note', it would end of up taking an hour and by then, he and Gaz had normally gotten on with something else. But when Dib was three steps from the door, a hand came down on his shoulder.

"Going somewhere Dib?" Asked the Professor, the jolly gone out of his tone for a moment. There as an edge to it suddenly, almost a threatening tone that made Dib stop dead.

"Well, I was going to head over to Zim's house," he said weakly, turning to look at his father. The man no longer towered over him, but he was still slightly taller than Dib, broader too than the teens skinny frame. "We've got some homework that I wanted his opinion on, in Biology class."

"That foreign looking boy?"

"Er, yeah." Winced Dib, knowing he'd given up trying to announce that Zim was an alien but he felt the old surge coming to the surface.

"You seem very good... friends with that... boy."

Something seemed to be bothering the professor suddenly, but Dib couldn't fathom what it was, since as far as he was concerned, his father had the attention span of Gir when it came to parenting. But Dib smiled and tried to look pleased, "yeah well, we're really good friends. Have been for years now."

Argh! God's help him if Zim ever found out that he'd been referred to as a friend by Dib, he screamed in his mind. It took a lot of will power to not just cringe on the spot.

"Good... friends?"

"Yeah," winced Dib, his smile faltering.

"They spend all there time together dad," chipped in Gaz with a smirk, enjoying seeing her brother squirm under this mysterious questioning. "He's hardly ever home since he's always over at Zim's house or playing around with him at Hi Skool."

Dib shot her a glare but it was nothing compared to the sudden frown on his fathers goggled face, "is that so?" He said, almost to himself. "Then it is essential that you need to spend some time with your family! Tonight!"

Crap, sighed Dib, knowing there was little way out without punishment.

* * *

^_^ I've had a complaint about Zim. All I can say is, I've done my best to keep him Zim but a slightly more fed up version of him. Oh well, its just my way I guess :(


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five.**

* * *

In Hi Skool, the next day, Dib yawned and tried not to fall asleep in Math class. It was one of those subjects where he was so far ahead of even the teacher that he no longer cared, but he would normally spend his time doing other things to keep his mind busy. Today, he was struggling to stay awake since his dad, last night, had insisted on making them all spend a Lot of 'family time' together.

Even though he and Gaz lived together, spoke to each other, even briefly, it wasn't something they were used to doing. Going out of their way to spend time together. There was the agreed upon ritual of 'Movie Night', something there father had instigated a year and a half ago but then never bothered to attend after the first two weeks. It had grown into something they both enjoyed, even if they never really spoke about it, and the idea of them spending time together had always made there father happy.

So after going out for a meal, not the usual place like Bloaty's or some fast food place, no. The Professor had insisted on taking them to a really nice looking restaurant, some place that had made him feel completely out of place in his long black leather trench coat and thick boots. He and Gaz had been made to sit opposite each other, he was allowed no books and she wasn't allowed her Game Slave. After half an hour there dad had had to go and make a phone call, leaving the pair to sit and eat in silence.

The creepy notion that it looked like Dib was on a date with his younger sister, had crawled threw his mind regularly enough that he'd nearly been put off of his food. He'd not dared say as much, but judging by the angry scowl on his sisters face, directed in the area there father had disappeared, meant she might have had the same thought. Once the bill had appeared, so had there dad, suddenly announcing, as he'd dropped some money on the plate to pay the check, that they were to go home and watch a movie together.

Again, this had been more creepy than usual.

There dad had picked some soppy romantic title, putting it on before either could voice an objection, and he'd then made them sit next to each other on the sofa while he sat on a chair **next** to the TV and watched **them.** Major odd.

They had both agreed, when heading up to bed, never to talk about last night. Ever.

Now he was sitting in Math and more doodling in his note book than doing anything productive.

"Mr Membrane!" Snapped the teacher suddenly, making Dib jump and look up. "I'm glad to see your paying attention at last!"

"Yes sir?" He asked, blinking and resisting the urge to rub the sleep from his eyes.

"I was asking you, what is the answer to the question on the board?"

Dib blinked again and looked around the room, knowing the teacher normally liked this kind of duel with Zim more than himself. The arrogance of the Irken got up most of the teachers noses, but there maths teacher, Mr Bubbles, seemed to take it as a personal insult.

Remembering that Zim had said he wasn't in Hi Skool today, Dib looked at the board and saw the board wide equation that rambled across it. It took him a moment to read it, another to work it out and then double check his answer.

"Well Dib, do you-" Began the teacher, hands on hips and a smile on victory on his lips, but Dib interrupted him.

"The answer is 12." He said before pausing to yawn, "the answer could be misled to be 14.7 but when you double check the equation, taking into account that that is indeed a mathematical symbol and not a squiggle you forgot to wipe off of the board, then the answer can only be 12."

"Go stand in the hall!" Shouted the teacher.

Dib did his best to hold in his smirk as he scooped his bag up and headed out of the classroom, amongst the whispers and mutters from his classmates. Normally he ignored such things, focusing his attention on Zim, trying to work out what he was planning next; well, working out how he was planning on trying to kill Dib. But when talking to a teacher, Dib was normally polite, it was Zim that was rude.

"Little fag missing his boyfriend?" Snickered someone in the room.

"No, the guy is too crazy to get laid," sneered another, "even with the green freak."

Dib stopped and looked around the class, trying to spot, amongst the sitting and laughing students, who it was that had said that. He'd never listened to what people said around him, so much so that he didn't even know what insults people used against him any more. They thought he was gay? That he was maybe dating Zim?

"Out Dib!" Shouted the teacher and Dib scowled, turning and throwing the door open before slamming it shut behind him. He slammed with with such force that the class in the upper half of the door cracked, held in place by the frame alone, this caused a wake of mutterings from the students. Dib didn't even notice.

Of all the days for Zim to skip, he thought as he stamped down the hall towards his locker. He had to skip the day after saying something so... intriguing. It was true that Dib had realised a lot about himself and Zim yesterday, things that he'd been too preoccupied to really think about, things he'd been too busy to notice, things he didn't really want to admit to himself. He still thought of himself as Earth's defender from the alien menace, even though it had been years since Zim had been a threat to anyone other than Dib or the odd bully.

Should he just skip Hi Skool and head to Zim's house?

The other students thought he was gay? The thought jumped on him as he stopped by his locker and paused before opening it. Where had that arisen from? Was it because he didn't pay attention to anyone, that the other students had come up with there own conclusions? Maybe it was his obsessive attitude towards the green Irken? He thought guiltily, his face flushing faintly.

It was true that his almost every waking thought was to do with Zim. Most of it was to do with getting the Irken in trouble, with making sure he didn't cause trouble for others, while trying to dodge whatever danger the alien had planned for him. Zim was probably just as obsessed with Dib, as Dib was with Zim, but the other students were too afraid of Zim to try and taunt him about it. Dib was an easy target still.

"Lookie boys, its the crazy faggot," called a voice in the empty corridor.

Dib blinked and looked around himself, seeing that a group of three boys coming around the corner from a different part of the school. It was a guy called Jeremy, with his two cronies; Dib didn't even remember there names since they were never away from Jeremy and never seemed to speak unless he spoke to them first. Whatever they were doing out of class, he didn't know, but they seemed bored enough to want to taunt him for a while.

"Don't ignore me," taunted Jeremy, coming closer. "Where's your little boyfriend, Zim?"

"Maybe he's off sucking someone else's cock," snickered Crony One, making the others chuckle.

"Yeah, the skinny crazy does look like he's missing his boyfriend," leered Jeremy, stopping in front of Dib.

"I'm not crazy," snarled Dib, anger flooding him. "And I'm not gay! Where does everyone get that idea from?"

"Cuz you spend all your time staring at the guy," answered Crony Two, seemingly surprised into honesty. "The pair of you are always together, always arguing or something. If your not banging each other, then what the hell are you doing?"

"That still doesn't make me gay!" Defended Dib, but in the back of his mind something was laughing at him. That darker part of himself that he did his best to ignore and hate, the part that questioned why he bothered to help humanity when it couldn't even help itself, the part that cursed the Swollen Eyeball Network whenever they dismissed him. The part that hated and revelled in that hate.

"Piss off," laughed Jeremy, "who you trying to fool? The whole Skool thinks your crazy and getting it on with the green freak."

"He's not a freak, he's an alien." Snapped Zim, but it sounded more like an automatic defence, something to say to deflect the truth these boys were saying and give himself time to think.

"See? Always crazy." Tutted Crony Two, but he was smiling.

"Lets have a little fun boys," announced Jeremy now, reaching out and grabbing hold of the front of Dib's trench coat. Jeremy was shorter than Dib but he was on the Hi Skool wrestling team, so what he lacked in height, he made up for in width and muscle. Dib leaned back against the pull, keeping his breathing calm while his heart rate started to climb, adrenaline flooding his body, making him ready to either fight or run.

"Get off me!" Ordered Dib, but his 'crazy' label meant that no one was ever scared of him. Zim yes, because when he was attacked, he attacked back. Jeremy only laughed and pulled hard on Dib's coat, making Dib either bend forwards slightly, or risk having his coat ripped.

"Shut up you dipshit," mocked the teen, his face full of twisted delight. "Your coming with me."

The fist in Dib's coat tightened and he pulled so suddenly that Dib would have been pulled off of his feet if he'd not been ready for it. They were only a few steps away from one of the men's rest rooms, and as Jeremy made a bee line for it, real fear started to climb up inside of Dib. He'd been beaten up before in the men's room, that was nothing more than just gross, but Jeremy had mentioned having some 'fun' with him. It didn't bode well no matter how he tried to think about it.

"Hey Jeremy," managed Dib threw gritted teeth as he started to tug back against the pull.

The guy ignored him and kept pulling him closer to the door while talking, "faggot like you has gotta be good at sucking a guys cock!" He said, to the on cue chuckles of Crony One and Two. "We'll just go out the way and put that crazy mouth of yours to good use."

"Hey Jeremy, wait," said Dib, trying to put more fear into his tone and make the idiot look at him. It worked. Dib knew it would, since part of being a real bully, was enjoying watching your victim suffer. He paused and turned his head to look at Dib, opening his mouth to say something as witty as before but Dib didn't give him a chance.

The black haired teen swung his arm up and caught the shorter youth in the face with the point of his elbow. There was less range, less chance he'd miss and more force behind the blow, as hard bone connected with Jeremy's soft face and he went down. As Jeremy went down, thankfully he let go of Dib's coat and it was all the incentive the teen needed to turn tail and run.

He didn't care any more. He wasn't going to hang around and deal with Crony One and Two because he didn't want to be violated in the men's room! It was a promise he'd always made to himself that he'd never fight the other students, or other humans if he could avoid it. A protector's job wasn't to attack those he was protecting.

But who'd asked him to be the protector?

That horrible little voice whispered again as he blasted out threw the Skool doors, jumping down the steps in a single bound and carrying on running. The anger stirred again, rising quickly and filling his gut with acid while his feet continued to pound away at the pavement, his body setting the pace so he could run all day. It wasn't the first time he'd had to run all day, he thought, trying to distract himself from that little voice. One of Zim's plans had been a robot that hunted him mercilessly, forcing him to keep running and running, not giving him enough time to stop and defend himself or fight back. Thankfully it had been so good at following him, it had followed him right into a river. No more robot.

Blinking sweat out of his eyes, Dib started to slow down and get his breath back, looking around himself as he did so. He was two doors away from Zim's house. Shit. His feet had ran him here without him even thinking about it!

Fuck it! He though savagely, he didn't care and it would give him something to distract himself with.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six.**

* * *

"Dib, you were so keen to delight your ocular organs with the sight of Zim, that you ran all the way here from Hi Skool?"

Dib nearly fell in the doorway as it was opened by the puzzled and undisguised Irken, he was still panting and felt sweaty but he didn't feel awkward as he moved past Zim, just relieved to be safe. He walked over to the couch and dropped himself on it, leaning back and tilting his head back as he took long steadying breaths now, eyes closed.

"Its Mary!" Squealed a familiar voice that made Dib open his eyes moments before the robot landed on his stomach. The air was knocked out of him and he couldn't stop Gir from cuddling his chest and humming.

Dib looked over at Zim about to ask for help, but instead he saw something in the aliens green face that looked a lot like jealousy, but it was gone in a blink, replaced by one of annoyance. What, did Gir never hug Zim or something? Thought Dib, confused as he patted the robot on the head and asked him to get off.

"Okay Mary!" Squealed Gir, sitting up and shifting so he was now sat on Dib's legs instead. "Mary came to see Mastah! Gir is so happy he's gonna go tell Mr Piggy!" With that, Gir launched himself off of Dib's long legs and landed at a run, quickly leaving the room and making it seem almost deathly quiet in his sudden absence.

"He never changes," sighed Dib, shifting and sitting up.

"He's a robot." Replied Zim, almost coldly as he continued to watch the kitchen door where Gir had disappeared. Dib fidgeted slightly and coughed, breaking Zim's glare and making the alien look at him. "So why are you here?"

"I..." Dib opened his mouth to explain but felt himself unable to suddenly. Was Zim aware of the rumours going around about them? Did he really want to bring it to his attention? There was an uneasy friendship going on between them it seemed, he didn't want to make it suddenly awkward. But Zim would find out most of it if he went to Skool tomorrow.

"I was kicked out of Math class." Sighed Dib, leaning back on the sofa. Zim frowned at him and moved to sit on the sofa next to him, enough space between them that he could face Dib and curl one leg up underneath him, comfortably.

"You got kicked out of class?"

"Yeah," nodded Dib, unable to stop himself from smirking with the petty pleasure of it. "For answering the question on the blackboard, despite the fact I was half asleep. I even pointed out a mistake."

"Why does Dib wait until the one day I'm not there to humiliate the Bubbles teacher?" Exclaimed Zim, throwing his hands up in the air and making Dib chuckle, despite himself.

"Yeah well, it got me sent out of class." He admitted with a shrug, the smile fading from his lips. "Then one of the wrestling team was bored in the corridor and wanted a 'Dib punching bag.'"

Not the whole truth but close enough.

Zim narrowed his eyes at Dib, the metal legs half extending slowly from his PAK and framing him menacingly, "who did this to you, my friend Dib?" Asked the Irken in a low tone. It was scary, but something about it made Dib want to cheer and return to Hi Skool with Zim, march right up to Jeremy and Crony One and Two, and beat the living daylights out of them. He had little doubt that Zim would enjoy it.

"I'm not really your friend Zim, I'm your enemy," pointed out Dib with a slight smile. "And I ran away. They didn't do anything more than try to grab the front of my coat."

The metal legs twitched slightly, seeming to flex in time with Zim's claws as he edged closer to the human. Dib leaned his head back slightly, but held his ground, keeping his amber eyes locked on the ruby orbs in front of him.

"There was an old Earth saying we learned of at Hi Skool," said Zim in that same low tone, a menacing smile crossing his lips. "'Keep your friends close, your enemies closer.' On Irk we have a very similar saying but it doesn't translate well. You are both my friend and my enemy. This makes you **very** special to me, Dib."

Dib swallowed hard as he felt colour rising quickly in his cheeks, his heart was racing again but it felt like he could barely breath. Zim was only inches away from him, his face so close he could feel the aliens breath on his cheeks, even smell the sweetness of his last snack. The moment seemed to hold, seeming to last forever as they both sat there...

"BATH TIME!"

The scream from Gir was all the warning they got as the tension between them broke and they turned, just in time to catch a face full of -what Dib could only assume- was Irken equivalent of shower water. Gir had a long purple hose and he was swinging it around while green goo was sprayed everywhere, thick enough to wobble and gather in clumps, liquid enough to drip off of the ceiling, Dib noticed.

"GIR!" Shouted Zim, turning his fury on his robotic companion. Dib got up to help disarm the little maniac but it still took them both a whole five minutes before the hose was shut off and Gir had been distracted by something shiny.

"So what is this stuff?" Asked Dib as he removed his sodden trench coat and shook out it, globs of green goo flying off it to land with the piles of it on the floor.

"Its is a combination of Irken bathing fluids and earth water." Explained Zim as he looked around in dismay at the living room, "at least it is simple to clean up and doesn't stain."

"Water?" Repeated Dib, hanging his coat up by the front door -an area somehow missed, along with the large TV.

"Yes," nodded Zim simply, looking from Dib to the mess and back as he explained. "After some experimentation, I discovered it was the heavy amount of pollution that is present in Earth rain and most bodies of water. It is that, that causes Zim's skin to burn."

"Ah, so pure water is okay on you?" Asked Dib curious.

"Yes, hence the compound I made, but it must be pure water and nothing else." Explained Zim, still looking at the piles of mess with a grimace, "we should be able to get most of it up with a broom. There's a drain in the floor in the kitchen."

"That's new," shrugged Dib, flowing Zim into the kitchen and taking the offered broom. "But I'm guessing it helps clean up whatever mess Gir makes in the here."

"Exactly." Sighed Zim as we both turned and set to work on the mess. It took nearly half an hour before the gooey cleaning fluids had been piled up on top of the drain, slowly dripping threw and diminishing.

"Well, that was interesting," sighed Dib, still feeling tired and sweaty from running. "Damned I could do with a shower," he said with a grimace as he caught a whiff of himself. Looking over at Zim he shrugged, "I'll head home and get showered and changed, then come back and find out what this plan is that you want my help with."

Zim raised an eyebrow, his ruby eyes shifting shape as he did, "why go home? Isn't Zim's base clean enough for you to bathe yourself?" He had been putting the brooms away and was now giving Dib a curious frown.

Dib blinked in shock at the suggestion and shrugged, "I guess it never occurred to me really." He admitted honestly, "its not like I'm used to this 'friendship' thing really. But what about my clothes?"

"You can either borrow some of mine," suggested Zim then stopped himself and chuckled at his own mistake. "No, that's a bad idea. No I'd best replicate the ones your wearing now, easiest way."

"You can replicate clothes?"

"Yes, and most food stuffs." Admitted the Irken with a pleased smile, seeming glad that he could surprise the human with Irken technology still. "Come on down to the lab, there's a shower down there too."

Without looking, Zim headed for the lift and Dib rolled his eyes before following behind the Irken. Zim was so arrogant that he didn't even doubt that Dib would follow him, thought Dib sardonically, but its not like he was wrong. I just hope all that has happened, means he won't turn around and shoot me with something because he can.

"Been a while since I was down here," admitted Dib casually, looking around as they stepped off of the lift together. It had changed only slightly, and today was in fetching shades of purple and pink once more. There were still the mysterious glowing tubes of goo, the _other_ tubes, pipes and cables that ran everywhere, and random collections of technology around the place, some of it resting on tables, half built.

"Here we are," said Zim, stopping by a wall with a large complicated looking machine on it. "This replicates what is placed inside this compartment here. It can do anything from food to clothes to machine parts, if they aren't too complex."

"That sounds amazing!" Gaped Dib in wonder, reaching out a hand to touch the machine but stopping and pulling it back. "What are its limitations?"

"Did I say it had limitations?" Asked Zim with a curl of his lip, close to a sneer but he was enjoying himself too much to look annoyed.

"Well obviously it does," countered Dib with a cocky smirk of his own. "Otherwise you'd use it to make almost anything you wanted, and lots of it."

"Clever deduction, Dib-friend," replied the Irken with a flick of his antenna and turning his attention to the machine. "It is limited in size. It can only make what will fit in the input compartment, if I enlarged the compartment, it wouldn't be able to successfully scan and replicate the item. There would be flaws."

"Are there larger one's in other places?" Dib couldn't help himself and he touched the machine, running his hand reverentially over the cool metal surface as he gazed at the control panel. "I mean, if it had a larger matter supply and more complex scanner array then it makes sense that-"

Dib stopped talking as Zim started to laugh. It wasn't a manic laugh or a pitying chuckle, it was a real laugh that was made from genuine humour. And the effect it had on Dib was to make his face flush and something flip-flop in his stomach, but it also made him smile, a soft smile that he tried to hide from Zim by turning to look at the machine again.

Zim started to calm down into chuckles, wiping a bright blue tear from his eyes before finishing with a sigh. "It does amaze even the great Zim, with the speed at which you will ask questions and jump to conclusions. You assess and assimilate so much faster than you used to."

"Well I'm not a kid anymore," shrugged Dib, keeping his red hot cheeks turned away from Zim, already knowing that the alien would be smirking. It wasn't like he'd ever actually received a compliment before. "You know, it just seems like the most logical thing really. If its limited by the input compartment, then it must be because of a combination between the scanner and the materials needed, since something isn't made from nothing."

"To answer your question, there are no bigger ones." Said Zim, stepping closer and leaning on the machine so he could see Dib's face once again, his ruby eyes almost glowing with enjoyment. "There had been attempts in the past, but no one could work out the correct algorithms to ensure the machine worked properly. There would always be problems no matter what Irkens tried it, and trust me when I say they tried everything they could think of."

"I can imagine," nodded Dib, still marvelling at the device. "If only I could get a good look inside and at the software... What?"

Zim had been staring at him with a strange look on his face, it had seemed almost foreign on the aliens features, so much that Dib thought he'd misread it. But it looked very much like longing, surely he was mistaken, he dismissed the thought. They were obsessed with each other, but only to the degree of fighting tooth and claw, even if there did seem to be a kind of friendship growing between them now. It wasn't like there was anything else about him that Zim held an interest in.

"Nothing," said Zim at last, pushing away from the machine. "The bathing room is threw that door there, I trust you can work it out. When you are undressed, hand the clothes out to me and I will replicate some new ones. I'll leave them inside the cleaning room for you, once you are done."

"Wait, your going to come in while I'm showering?" Asked Dib, both alarmed and embarrassed.

"It is of little worry Dib-friend," dismissed Zim with the wave of a claw. "There is a screen to prevent me seeing your flesh."

Dib just rolled his eyes and started to walk towards the cleaning room, as Zim called it. The door slid open as he stepped up to it and he looked around inside it before stepping in. It was so similar to a normal bathroom that Dib almost felt disappointed, it only lacked a toilet. There was a shower cubicle and a large tub set into the floor with ugly taps over-hanging its edge.

"Alright, do you have any towels? Or soap?" Asked Dib, turning around in the middle of the room and seeing Zim standing in the doorway, that same strange look in his eyes for a moment before he blinked, and it was gone again.

"Towels are over there. Soap will be in the shower or its the smaller tap on the bath." Instructed the Irken, pointing, "your welcome to have a bath, but it takes a while to fill the tub and I doubt you want to hang around in here all day."

"Hey, I might enjoy spending a long time in the tub," taunted Dib, hands on his hips.

"Doubtful, unless you've had a particularly disgusting experience during your day, or you need to ease a damaged muscle." Replied Zim with that same casual tone he'd been using for the last five minutes. At the look on Dib's face, he chuckled again while his antenna flicked idly, his words coming out in an almost sweeten tone, "remember Dib, I said we were a lot alike and that is the approach that **I** have to bathing."

Dib seemed to think a moment but shrugged and dismissed it with a wave, "fine whatever, your right. I just want to be clean by this point. Now get out and I'll pass you my clothes."

Zim remained where he was, folding his arms over his chest and watching Dib with an arrogant smile.

"Zim, out please." Ordered Dib, trying not to snap but the Irken was teasing him with the chance to be clean, and denying him privacy.

Finally Zim started to turn around, his body turning but his eyes lingered as long as they could on Dib until the door closed and blocked the view.

Well that was weird, mused Dib, turning his attention to the room and giving it a careful examination before he moved over to a low bench with towels on the far end. Boots off, t-shirt off, jeans and socks off, Dib hesitated as he reached for the waistband of his boxers. Grabbing one of the towels, he shook it out and was glad to see that it would cover him decently, before he wrapped it around his waist and wiggled out of his underwear. Securing the towel in place, he gathered his neatly folded clothes and -still feeling insecure- he moved to the door.

"Zim?" He called as the door moved open.

"Hm?" Replied the Irken, looking up from a bench near by, his antenna twitching forwards in surprise. "Clothes yes, just leave them on that chair by the door. I'll be there in a moment."

"Sure? I could use the replicater myself." He suggested but Zim waved a hand at him, dismissing the idea, giving some distracted excuse about 'better to be safe than sorry'. Dib shrugged to himself, trying to squash down the paranoia that he was deep in an enemies base with only a towel for protection. Sudden images of dissection tables fluttered threw his mind but he dismissed them and turned his attention to the shower.

Ten minutes later and Dib was almost groaning with contentment while leaning forwards with his hands braced against the shower wall. Sure it was the weird green goo from upstairs, but there were temperature gauges and he had it set quite high, and the speed setting was high enough, it was coming with enough force to soothe his muscles.

There wasn't a full length plastic screen to cover him in the shower, but he judged that by Zim's height the plastic screen would run from shoulder to knee on his shorter figure. For Dib, being a whole seven inches taller than the green skinned alien, it went from mid-chest to mid-shin. He still felt exposed, but there didn't seem to be that edge of tension in him.

The door did open at one point and Dib scooped up his glasses from where he'd hung them on the shower screen, holding them over his eyes enough to see that Zim did indeed come in and leave a fresh pile of clothes on the bench before retreating out. He'd not even looked over at Dib, just dropped the clothes on the bench and headed back out straight away.

It was just so weird, it was almost surreal, Dib mused as he finished soaping his body. He would never have pictured doing something like this last month, although he thought wistfully, he might have wished for something close. Maybe not with Zim -but it wasn't a hard truth to admit to himself that he'd never had any other people with which to form this kind of relationship. The odd peace between them wasn't exactly a truce or stoppage of there usual brawling, but until Zim had explained this plan of his, it seemed he wasn't ready to punch Dib in the face any time soon.

But worst of all, Dib found himself enjoying this.

Sure, he would probably end up provoking a fight between them both soon, for no other reason than he enjoyed fighting the Irken but even then, he had an idea that Zim would agree to the contest. They were alike in that they both enjoyed fighting, it was what seemed to keep them going almost; a thought which made him grimace as he turned the strange green flow off.

Shaking his head to himself, he reached up and wrung some of the water from his hair. It was still kept short except for the scythe like lock at the front, he wrung it out and it snapped back into position again.

Reaching for the towel, Dib nearly jumped out of his skin as he spotted Gir standing there and silently looking up at him.

"What ya doin'?" Asked the little robot curiously, tilting its head on one side.

"Hi Gir," he said, a little nervously. He was never sure what Gir would do next really, while he could sometimes handle the little guy for a few weeks by distracting him with a toy or something, Gir would then flip-flop and have no interest in the toy's Dib would bring him. Instead the little thing would suddenly decided to attach itself to Mister Piggy and he'd have to bring food for it, to keep the robot distracted. "I'm getting out of the shower. What are you doing?"

"Watching."

"Err, okay. How about you go out and tell Zim that I'll be out in a minute?" Asked Dib hopefully, as he remained behind the screen and grabbed the towel off of the hook by the shower and started to dry himself off quickly.

"Nah, Gir wants to make sure Mary gets dressed without falling over." The robot broke out into a happy smile and started to dance around on the spot, looking like it was doing a war dance. "Mastha keeps talking about falling things! Gir wants to make sure Mary don't go falling off things. It would make Mastha sad. So so SAD!" That that last word, Gir burst into tears and fled the room, leaving Dib still standing in the shower with the towel wrapped around himself and blinking in confusion.

* * *

Hey, just a small note. I've been getting a few comments about my grammar and I'd like to say, I really am doing my best. Its not like I'm dyslexic or anything, but I didn't have a proper education when it came to English at school. My GCSE tutor thought it would be more useful to focus on Shakespeare for three years, not instead try to teach me about Verbs and sentence structure :/ So, its not really an excuse, I'm a lot better than a I used to be, but sometimes mistakes get made. Thank you.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven.**

* * *

"So what is this big plan that you think I could help you with?"

Zim was still standing at a bench and working away at something in front of him, goggles covering his eyes as whatever he was doing was causing sparks to fly up. The Irkens antenna flicked and Zim paused in his work, "come over here Dib-thing." He said, still in a distracted tone and never turning his gaze away from what he was working on, starting to zap at it again as soon as he'd finished speaking.

Dib shrugged to himself and slipped his hands into his pockets as he moved closer to Zim, coming up behind him and leaning over his shoulder. Effectively he was using the shorter alien as a vague shield, since Zim was still zapping away and making sparks fly around the bench top. There were a few minutes of staring and frowning while Zim continued to zap away at the mess on the bench, finally he stopped and put down the tools before pulling the goggles off of his face.

"It looks like a ray gun, since there are the emitters and the focusing arrays for the beams. But as well as an energy source to draw the beam from, you've got it dialled down and incorporated a biological element." The words tumbled out of Dib as he sidestepped to stand next to Zim, his eyes fixed on the bench and the mess of creation therein. "It looks... It looks more like a gun that you would use to close wounds or something, rather than cause them."

"Yes it is." Confirmed Zim with a nod, a smug smile on his face as his ruby eyes gazed at the device. "I've been working on the theory for a while but I've only started work on the device this week."

"But I thought Irken technology meant that you would already **have** something like this." Pointed out Dib, looking away from the device and down at Zim instead, seeing his face in profile. He watched as Zim's smile faded into a look of uncertainty, his slender hands reaching out to touch at the 'healing gun'.

"Zim does have a device like this, that will close up life threatening wounds," he said in quiet tone while his claws moved over the handle. "And it is small enough for me to carry it around with me in my PAK, if I ever got really hurt. Zim stopped doing that a long time ago, when he learned that the Dib wanted him alive, to show the other hyumans."

Dib felt a smile tug at the corner of his lips as he listened. It had been ages since Zim had slipped back into his old methods of speech, he'd actually learned a lot since there first year together in Skool. But in times of distraction and stress, it seemed Zim reverted back to basic English or even Irken.

"So why are you making another one?" Asked Dib as Zim fell silent besides him. In truth he was starting to get a little restless. He was in Zim's lab and surrounded by things that he half understood after his work on Tak's spaceship, but since she'd made it herself, it held very little in the way of 'standard' Irken tech.

"It is... part of Zim's plan."

"Okay... Do you want to tell me the plan?" Prompted Dib, somehow not getting irritated by Zim's distracted answers. Normally he'd be pulling at his hair by now, since his patients wasn't the best for stupid people; still longer than Zim's, he thought with a smirk. Something seemed to be decided by the green skinned alien and he looked up from the 'healing gun' and at Dib standing next to him, hands in his pockets still.

"Zim's plan is to get you to help me to fulfil my main plan," explained Zim shifting around so he could lean his hip on the bench and fold his arms over his chest, but his eyes never left Dib's face. "I was going to offer you this as payment for your cooperation. Since things have been more... amenable between us, I hoped I could persuade you to see things from my point of view."

"We're not talking about you trying to take over the world here, are we?" Asked Dib dryly, his eyes moving back to the device, nestled in the mess of construction. Zim snorted with laughter and tilted his head to the side, his expression saying his thoughts better than words. "Okay I get it, world domination hasn't been your thing for a while now... Although, I've been wanting to ask..." Dib trailed off as he looked back at Zim now, not sure how to pick his words.

"Why an Invader suddenly lost the interest in invading?" Asked Zim with a cold smile. Dib nodded, his pulse quickening as he focused on the Irken. There was a pause again, as Zim seemed to come to some kind of decision with himself, probably about how to talk to Dib about such a big and personal thing.

"Does the Dib remember when he broke into my base and came down here to challenge me?"

Dib tried to smile since he had a pretty good idea what time Zim was referring to. "Well out of all the times I've done it, and memorable as they all were, there's only one that really sticks in my memory. When I came in to see you ridged in your chair... I'd thought you were dead, you seemed so... lifeless."

"That is a good way to describe it," agreed Zim with a nod and an empty smile, shifting his gaze to look out at the multitude of pipes and tubes in his lab. "I'd not long contacted the Tallest to give them a mission report, its what I was trained and instructed to do. But after we'd spoken, they hadn't severed the connection properly, only disabled the visual feed... I do wonder if they did it on purpose, a sick and twisted joke to throw at the mighty Zim, trapped on Earth and unable to avenge himself."

"What did you hear?" Asked Dib quietly, his hands tightening into fists without realising it.

"They laughed and joked to each other, wondering how much longer it'd be before," and here Zim's voice switched to mimic one of the Tallest Dib had heard talking before, but he wasn't sure which. "'The pathetic little defect realizes he's not on a real mission?' 'Maybe when the Armada finally gets round to that backwater of space to conquer it? Give it another ten years maybe.' 'He's such a pathetic idiot, he must know we don't care. But then why hasn't he realised already? It's been over a year now.'"

Zim stopped talking and stared at nothing, his face turned away from Dib while his jaw clenched, his breathing becoming harsh as his temper flared. Dib's mouth had slipped open in complete shock and he only now realised as he shut it, and swallowed hard, trying to think of something to say, feeling compelled to say something. He put a hand on Zim's shoulder, moving slowly enough that Zim couldn't interpret it as an attack, and Dib rubbed gently, giving it a small squeeze.

"You are giving me comfort?" Asked Zim, frowning slightly in confusion but not moving from his position of staring at nothing.

"Should I not?" Dib spoke softly but firmly, his lips shifting to form a weak smile, "are you 'mighty Irken's' above having your whole life destroyed on a whim? Don't you need someone to comfort and understand you at times?"

Taking a steadying breath, the Irken finally moved and lifted his head to look at Dib. "We are enemies Dib-thing," he said flatly, "I was hoping to call upon another old Earth saying. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.' I remembered it that day, and I asked you, my enemy, if you would be my friend."

"Is that what all that chatter was in Irken?"

"Yes," nodded the alien, his antenna twitching slightly as Dib continued to keep his hand on Zim's thin shoulder. He could feel the bone and tight cord-like muscle under the red fitted t-shirt Zim wore. "But you still agreed. And when I felt ready to face the world once more, you treated me as thought you'd not seen me at my weakest moment."

"Well... it seemed only fair really," winced Dib, but his natural honesty compelled him to add. "You know that I had no idea what you'd said at the time, and when you jumped out at me, I still thought you were evil space scum."

"Ah, such kind words you shouted too," teased Zim with a wink, becoming more himself and less like the empty shell he'd been while he'd spoken of the Tallest. "But with that in mind, I want you to help me destroy the Tallest."

"What, physically?" Asked Dib, surprised. "With weapons and a ship?"

"No no," corrected Zim with a shake of his head. He took a small step closer to Dib, since there was little space left between them anyway, "by keeping up our rivalry, you gave Zim the time to properly decode his PAK. I am smarter now, and while an explosion of universal proportions would soothe my pride, I wish a worse vengeance upon them."

"Worse than blowing them up?" Said Dib, feeling a dark smile tug at his lips and worrying slightly that it would match the wicked one on Zim's own lips. "I think you've got my interest, now tell me more. What do you have in mind?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight.**

* * *

Dib was sat in his room and looking over the plans that Zim had printed off for him. While he still couldn't understand Irken in its spoken form -well, not fluently and there was no chance of him actually speaking it- he could read it quiet well when written down, so for security, Zim had left the plans in Irken. It was nearly nine when he'd gotten in and the sun hadn't long set, as the seasons rolled slowly towards the summer and the days started to get longer and dryer. He'd seen Gaz sat on the sofa playing her Game Slave, they'd shared a look when he'd walked in, before he'd nodded at her and headed straight up to his room. They'd been forced to spend too much time together the evening before, even talking to each other was much at the moment.

So once he was in his room, Dib had thrown himself into the work before him, relishing in the new challenges that Zim was proposing. Frowning as he came across a word he couldn't quite understand, Dib winced and hissed slightly at the pain that flared.

Despite there friendship, there had still been a fight half way threw the planning meeting, a few hours ago. It had started with Dib making fun of something Zim had said and the Irken had frowned at him, not seeing the humour in the remark. It would have passed them by, if Gir hadn't then run in with his pig toy held over his head, screaming the words that Dib had just said, over and over. Zim had quickly thrown the first punch after that.

Over all, neither of them were truly hurt and it had both put them in a better mood when they'd finally reached the inevitable stalemate and returned to planning. There was a cut threw his eyebrow and a bruise on his cheek bone, that would probably be a pretty shade of purple tomorrow at Skool, but Zim had had his antenna grabbed and nearly cried in the process before he lashed out, hence the bruise.

A knock at his door startled Dib, making him turn in his chair just as the door was being pushed open. It wasn't Gaz, or his dad, but it was a hovering robot with a screen and camera. Dib sighed inwardly, turning around properly to face the screen, "what do you want dad?" He asked, glancing at the clock on his bedside table and seeing that it was now nearly midnight.

"I just came to check on you son," answered the Professor in a cheery voice. "Why aren't you spending some time with your sister?"

"Because after yesterday, we felt it would be better to spend a little time apart." Replied Dib in a sing-song voice and leaning back in his chair. "You know, absence makes the heart grow fonder... apparently."

There was silence from the screen and Dib wondered if his dad was even paying attention any more, if not he could probably return to reading the plans on his desk. In fact, it was just as he was turning around and reaching out for a piece of paper, that his dad spoke up again.

"What are you working on there son?" There seemed to be a hopeful note in his voice, or Dib was over humanising the man again.

"Some plans for building a new kind of robot," he replied, hoping the hint towards doing something 'really scientific' would make his dad leave him alone. "Zim and I are working on a project involving-"

"Zim? Why is that name familiar?" Dib rolled his eyes at the interruption and the erratic interest from his father.

"Because I was going to go around to his house yesterday and ask him about some homework," answered Dib, remembering the lie he'd told, only at the last minute.

"So you've been around there again?" Questioned the Professor, the screen moving closer as he spoke. "Not at home, spending time with your darling sister?"

"Yes. I was with Zim. Working on a science project," repeated Dib, frowning and feeling the familiar urge to punch the screen.

It wasn't like he had anger issues or problems with his temper, Dib knew that despite years of frustration from many sources, he handled himself very well. Although over the last few months, the urge to just punch something to stop it annoying him, had grown considerably. He'd put it down to hormones, but it was always linked to the feeling that his skin was tingling, his senses becoming more alert. He'd put that down to adrenaline.

"Hm... You need to spend less time with this, Zim, and more time with your sister." Instructed the Professor before the screen turned around and floated over to the door. Dib glared and flashed it the finger, before it turned around to shut the door.

Sighing heavily, Dib returned his attention to the plans again, finding his place easier than the last time he'd been distracted. It was getting easier to read Irken, the long he spent at it, he thought with a smirk at himself, maybe in a few weeks time he could even try and get his tongue around some of the Irken words. The thought of Zim's face if he managed to speak Irken with him...

Dib shook himself slightly and tried to concentrate on the work before him, feeling himself blush faintly at the soft smile that had been on his lips, all because he'd been thinking about Zim. He would consent to being friends with the alien, he wouldn't allow it to go any further than than!

The plan before him was interesting and almost elegant with how subtle it was.

For Zim.

It involved creating nano-bots that would be ingested by the Irken populace, once inside the body, they nano-bots would leave the digestive system and move to the PAK of the host Irken. There they would secure themselves, out of sight and undetectable since they would be made using mostly Earth based technology's, something the PAK's weren't designed to scan for. After a certain amount of time, when enough of the Irken race had consumed the tainted snacks, the time delayed programming would take effect simultaneously, throughout the Empire.

The nano-bots would burrow the PAK's core programming, almost directly since they would be inside the PAK already, and they would change the basic code functions. But not just for the technological side of the PAK, but also for the side that regulated the body of an Irken.

Zim's personal research on himself, since finding out he was considered defective, had uncovered that the Irken genetic code was 'worn thin' as it was casually termed. Compared to a human's DNA, it was badly programmed and highly prone to genetic mutation; Zim's theory was that with all the cloning and genetic pruning that had gone on over the generations, they were becoming weak as a race and would become vulnerable. The natural part of them was trying to evolve and grow to protect itself, like any living creature would, but the PAK's were denying it and controlling the growth of all Irkens.

Once activated the nano-bots would remove any and all growth restrictions on all Irkens, physically, mentally and genetically. It would also strip out the programmed desire to conquer without regard for others, the automatic loyalty to the Tallest, and the emotional retardation of the entire race.

Dib was almost cackling as he continued to read this and that darker part of his mind started to murmur to him again, what about if Dib and Zim could do this to the people on Earth? He slammed a hand down hard on that thought, and on his desk at the same time to distract himself with the shock of it. He wasn't supposed to think thoughts like that, he thought coldly, looking over at his clock again and seeing that it was nearly one am. Protectors of mankind don't go around trying to change what they are protecting... even if it might be for the better.

With a sigh, Dib got up and started to unbutton his jeans and pull them off, throwing them in the corner with the other clothes that needed to be hauled down to the laundry room, to be taken care of by the robot there. Pulling his t-shirt off and letting it join the trousers, Dib sighed and looked down at himself a moment. There were still no weird side effects from using Zim's weird shower of goo, no tentacles, scales or strange spots on his body.

Stretching and sighing again with the contented feeling it gave him, Dib threw himself into the bed... he was asleep in moments.

* * *

A little late, so have a double update :)


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine.**

Minor Smut Warning. :) Thats all the warning your getting.

* * *

Hot panting breaths filled his ears and ghosted over his cheeks, while hands moved over his skin. Hands that felt more like claws and a tongue that was more flexible than any tongue he'd ever known. His cheeks were flushed and he couldn't stop the moan that left him as those claws scratched at him lightly, that tongue was now aided by lips that moved on his neck.

Gasping suddenly, his heartbeat pounding in his ears, he heard a dark chuckle that made him arch his back slightly and reach out for whoever was touching him like this. His hands found soft skin, an unfamiliar texture but there was no denying the strength under that skin, the strong muscles and frame. The lips on his neck stopped and now kissed there way to his own lips, as his arms pulled the other close, pressing bodies flush together.

A breathy moan of longing escaped him a moment before he seemed to finally open his eyes...

* * *

Dib's eyes flew open wide as he gripped tightly at fist fulls of his duvet. His body gave another spasm as desire rippled threw him and Dib threw his head back as he let out a silent cry. The duvet in his grip, ripped apart like paper as came in his boxers at the same time. Panting hard, with sweat covering his body, Dib blinked in shock up at the ceiling.

After few minutes his heart rate was starting to drop back to normal and he risked levering himself up to take a look at the damage. The duvet had been wrapped around his legs as well as being held tightly, it was now shredded beyond use. Throwing off the remains of the covering, he got a look at his underwear and cringed at the huge wet patch that covered his half hard cock.

Sitting up carefully, Dib picked up his glasses and slipped them on before looking at the clock besides his bed. It was nearly six in the morning, which meant he'd only had five hours of sleep but he'd been able to get into the bathroom and have a shower before Gaz woke up. It also meant he could reach the shower in his present state before Gaz woke up.

Letting out a shaky sigh, Dib winced as some of the muscles in his back and legs twinged slightly. He knew it would have been from thrashing around and then tensing up, while his hormones took his body for a joy ride.

But it was only once he was securely in the shower and feeling the refreshing pattering of the warm water on his head and shoulders, that Dib was finally forced to think about what had happened. It wasn't like it was his first wet dream, or even the first time he'd destroyed a duvet from a particularly forceful dream -admitted it was normally nightmares that caused him to buy new bedding.

If he tried, he could argue that the dream had been vague enough that he couldn't have said who it was supposed to be about. That he'd not actually seen anyone there, only felt the sensations of someone touching him. But that darker part of his mind was always there these days, always snickering at the lies he told himself more and more often.

Who else did they know that had a long almost serpent like tongue? Who else had claws and was easily as strong as they were, if not stronger still?

Dib frowned to himself and reached for the shampoo, lathering up his hair before he managed to come back with an answer for himself. Its like not he was all that strong, he thought with a sneer.

Who are you trying to fool? The little voice had laughed and Dib felt a smile tug at his lips as he started to wash the shampoo out of his black hair. The only reason he didn't think he was strong, was because he had no one to reference himself against, he never fought back against anyone when they tried to beat the crap out of him. He was too worried about being a Protector of the Earth, to bother defending himself against the hate of its populace.

Giving himself a shake, Dib scowled again and reached for the body wash now. What did it matter if it was Zim that he dreamed about? He thought nastily, his words lashing out but only seeming to make the darkness inside him smile with pleasure. Dreams were beyond anyone's real control or understanding, and so long as he did nothing to act on it, then it was nothing more than an random, harmless -erotic and thought provoking- dream.

Damned brain!

A banging on the door startled Dib and made him nearly slip over, he grabbed hold of the wall and managed to brace himself before he caused any real damage.

"Are you gonna be in there all morning?!" Demanded Gaz angrily.

"I'm just getting out now," he called back, "keep your knickers on, sister dearest."

He knew she'd kick his ass for that 'sister dearest' part, he thought while turning the shower off and grabbing the towel as he got out. But since she'd want to kick his ass for having a shower before she did in the morning, he might as well get his laughs in while he could still move. Not even bothering to dry himself off, Dib wrapped the towel around his waist and pulled open the door.

"Bathroom's free," he said as he pushed his glassed back on his face and looked down at Gaz threw the fading steam on the lenses. She glared hard at him, still dressed in her pjyama's and cocked her fist to swing at him but Dib side stepped quickly, raising his spare hand. "Woah! Kick my ass when I'm dressed! I might drop my towel."

"Tch," she sneered, "good point."

It was all he heard before she stamped into the bathroom and slammed the door shut, it was only after a few nervous moments that Dib heard the shower starting to run again. Letting out a sigh of relief, he knew he had only twenty minutes to get dressed and out the house before Gaz followed through on her implied threat.

Moving into the room, Dib glanced at the clock. He'd only been in the shower ten minutes! He sighed but moved quickly still, drying his body and hair as quickly as possible before throwing some clothes on. His bag was easy to sort out, since he preferred to leave his books at Hi Skool and do his homework while still there, if possible. But he did grab the folder with the plans inside, as well as papers with the notes he'd made himself, shoving those carefully into his bag.

Running down the stairs, Dib stopped in the kitchen a moment and grabbed two breakfast bars and a can of soda before moving to the front door. Pausing a moment, he still heard the shower running and sighed with relief, before unlocking the door and slipping out quietly, locking it again behind himself. There was still a whole two and a half hours before Hi Skool and he wouldn't be able to get into the library so early. So where should he go?

It was with a heavy sigh that Dib found himself turning towards Zim's house.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten.**

* * *

"I know we're not currently enemies at the moment, but what is with this sudden desire to see Zim in your every waking moment?" Asked the Irken with a yawn.

Dib looked up from his place at Zim's kitchen table, the plans in front of him once more as he munched his way threw the breakfast bars and soda. Zim had been asleep according to the computer. He'd been let in by Gir and had asked aloud where Zim was, and to his surprise the computer had answered with a suffering sigh, it wasn't even like he'd been talking to it really. It really had surprised the hell out of him when it had answered.

"Gaz wanted to kick my ass for getting a shower before she did," he answered as Zim moved to one of the cupboards and took out a soda can, popping it open and taking a long drink. "I know its not exactly what you want to hear, but I had no where else to go at half six this morning."

"What?" Zim's antenna twitched forwards with surprise. "What were you doing awake at that time?"

"I had... disturbing dreams." Admitted the human, looking back at the plans and trying to ignore the fact that he was blushing. "There was no chance of me getting back to sleep afterwards, so I jumped in the shower."

Zim gave him a curious stare then started to smile slowly, he said nothing but continued to stare at Dib while sipping his drink. Dib started to shift slightly under the weight of that ruby eyed gaze and tried to look anywhere but at Zim, he went for a change of subject instead.

"So, why were you sleeping?" He asked lightly, "is it something to do with why you have no PAK on at the moment?"

"Well observed," nodded Zim slowly before moving to sit in the seat next to Dib. He was wearing a loose sleeping vest and a pair of baggy shorts that, both together made him seem thinner than he really was. Overall he looked very relaxed as he sat there, and again, it felt surreal; Dib suddenly had the image in my mind, that if they had ended up room mates somehow, that this would be what there morning's would be like.

"Once I was able to break the coding on my PAK, I started to make modifications to it," explained Zim, between sips from his can. "It was a long process and it has taken years, but it's gave me something to focus my attentions on besides you. A project I was in no rush to complete, yet overall it proved extremely useful. I learned a lot, not just about the PAK but about my race as well."

Zim paused to finished the can and crumple it up, throwing it casually into the bin in the corner, before he looked at Dib again and continued. "I learned that we are programmed, on a genetic level to be unable to survive without our PAK's, hence the ten minute's you have to reattached it before you die. But that ten minute count down had me puzzled. When observing death in others, like the creatures of this planet, it was usually very quick. But if it was slow, there was a noticeable biological decline in the subject until the point of death, whereas Irken's are weakened but not damaged by the removal of the PAK."

Dib nodded as Zim spoke and opened his mouth now, "so with that as a starting point, I'm guessing you used it as the lose thread to pull apart the entire core programming of the PAK? Finding out why you'd die after ten minutes, but not grow weaker and suffer as you lay there waiting for the ten minutes to finish."

"Exactly," grinned Zim wolfishly, as his antenna lay against his skull, he was clearly enjoying himself. "And that is where I found out how flexible Irken DNA is. It certainly helped me to survive over the years I've been here, adapting me to this world."

"You've been modifying yourself?" Dib asked with mild surprise, eyebrows raised in polite enquiry while his eyes flicked over the Irkens body.

"Irkens will not grow over a fixed height unless the Control Brains pick's up on qualities they perceive as good for leadership, then they will adjust the programming in that Irken's PAK to allow them to grow some more, after that its down to them to prove themselves." Explained Zim shifting to lean his bare green arms on the table, his eyes never leaving Dibs face. "It's something else that I will be changing when our plan is put into effect."

"You mean either removing the coding that gives the Control Brains their control, or do you mean, adding in a barrier that stops them from being able to influence Irken's?" Asked Dib, unable to take his eyes off of the red ones before him as he too leaned forwards on the table. "With some work, I don't see why we couldn't do both?"

"And that is one of the reasons why I need you so badly," said Zim, in words dropping in volume as he spoke, until it was almost a quiet muttering. Dib tilted his head slightly to the side and smirked, making Zim flush faintly before he continued to speak. "To help me. I need you to help me with my plan because it will be a fresh perspective, one the Control Brains will not have encountered before."

"So, have you done any other modifications?" Asked Dib, shifting in his seat but not leaning any further back.

The blush having faded, Zim smiled a wickedly and leaned closer to Dib, they were only inches apart now, leaning over one corner of the kitchen table. "Mostly I've just stopped my PAK from interfering in the natural changes and adaptations my body was doing **anyway**, only normal with how long I've been living on this planet, and how defective I am."

Dib frowned then, his amber eyes locked on Zim's as he said, "don't ever call yourself defective. Not like that. The way you say that word, it sounds like something dirty and bad." Dib's frown soften into a gentle smile as Zim's expression subtly changed to one of almost open longing, longing for acceptance, for friendship, for another living soul that would understand him without just seeing a 'defective'. The Human did wonder idly, if Zim was aware of how open he was? Especially since he was normally a lot more careful, a lot more cautious... Even if he wasn't quiet the vicious monster he used to be.

"You are intelligent and resourceful, and so far above the others of your race that they should look up to you as a figurehead of change, no matter what height you are."

Zim closed his eyes and Dib wondered if the alien was holding back tears. It certainly seemed that way, as the ruby orbs had started to shimmer slightly before they'd been hidden away. As those eyes closed, the antenna flicked up and forwards, almost like they were reaching out for Dib while the human continued to speak. But they stayed upright, quivering slightly with emotion.

"Why do you offer Zim kindness?" Asked the Irken in a shaky voice, but still holding himself ridged, only a few inches away from Dib, his eyes still closed. "Zim is an alien, who tried to destroy your planet and yourself, Dib-thing, so many times. Zim is nothing but a de-"

The red eyes flew open as a finger appeared on Zim's lips, stopping him from speaking. Dib didn't trust himself not to try and silence the Irken any other way, especially not with last nights dream still lingering in the back of his mind. He wasn't ready to do more than admit that Zim was attractive, but he wouldn't be alone in saying that, since a good number of the Hi Skool populace agreed on that detail. Attractive but deadly.

"I don't ever want to hear you say that word again," ordered Dib, his low voice firm and commanding as he spoke. "If I hear it, I want it to be in terms of pride. You have done what no other Irken has ever done before, and when we succeed with your plan, you will will not be alone."

Zim blinked innocently, the finger still on his lips as he listened in silence, while a dusting of blue appeared on his cheeks as he blushed. It was the twitch of the antenna that warned Dib, from being up and forwards slightly, to laying back again. Zim opened his lips enough to allow the finger to rest on his bottom lip, while his teeth gripped the tip of the digit instead, it gave Dib only a moment for his eyebrows to raise in surprise, his mouth opening before Zim's tongue slipped forwards.

The tip of his tongue flicked the pad of Dib's index finger, before it started to lightly lick and tease around the digit. Dib felt his whole body go ridged, even his lungs seemed to have forgotten how to move as he watched that flexible tongue. Zim's tongue slipped a little further down Dib's finger, reaching as far as the middle of the digit before he pulled back and bit lightly. The gentle pressure seemed to bring Dib to his senses and he let out a shaky breath, tugging almost reluctantly at his finger, eyes as wide as saucers behind the glasses and he knew his face must have been bright red.

The Irken and the Human sat there, watching each other while the atmosphere between them thickened, even the ticking of the clock on the wall seemed muffled. Dib's mind was blank. Even the dark little voice that usually liked to make itself known at these moments, had been momentarily silenced.

What was going on? Dib managed at last, feeling like his thoughts were moving threw syrup. This was getting too much... right? Why did he not feel outraged or shocked?

Zim must have been watching closely, Dib mused, as realisation seemed to come to the teen, Zim smiled cockily and got up quickly, turning his bared back on Dib and allowing him to see the small hole between the shoulder blades were the PAK would connect to the cybernetic implants in the Irken's body. It was a small, discreet plug, not the ugly looking wound he'd have expected with Irken technology.

Saying nothing, the Irken left the room and headed up the stairs without a backwards glance.

Dib closed his eyes and finally let out his held breath, all of it escaping him in one go. Biting his lip, Dib shifted slightly so he could have a look under the table at himself, and felt his face flush hotly as it saw the solid proof that he wasn't totally against what was happening. Closing his eyes again, Dib slipped his glasses off and rubbed at his face with both hands for a moment, before putting the glasses back on and trying his best to calm down quickly. Especially since Zim didn't seem like he would take long to get dressed and ready for Hi Skool, which started in just under an hour. Explaining why Dib had a raging hard on was not on his to-do list today.

Looking once more at the plans and making notes as he read, Dib did his best to not think about anything except the nano-bot design concepts that Zim had sketched out.

He tried.

He tried really hard while inside his mind, that darker part of himself laughed and laughed.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven.**

* * *

It was two days after the moment in the kitchen at Zim's house and Dib was leaning against his locker, enjoying the feel of the cold metal against his forehead while the students moved and bustled around him. Today was Friday and everyone was keen to get the last two lessons of the day over with before Hi Skool was finished for the week.

Dib was just anxious to get the whole week over with.

It had been a long and strange one from every single angle of his life, so much that it felt like he'd probably spent the last year asleep or something! He'd come to the realization that his greatest enemy was more of a friend than he'd known, but one that he liked to argue with them sometimes and fight for enjoyment now, not survival. On top of that, Dib had never seen so much of his Dad since... ever.

Once upon a time, Dib would have given his right arm and maybe even his left leg to see his parent figure on a daily basis. But there was just something... off about him these days. The Professor was always talking about Dib and Gaz spending time together, doing things together, and the word family came up so often Dib felt he'd gag next time it cropped up in conversation. It wasn't like the Professor to suddenly remembered that his children were nearly adults, it reminded Dib more of a science experiment for some reason. Introduce the two subjects into a situation then sit back and observe, adjusting the variables as needed.

It was getting so Dib dreaded going home for any reason, and when he'd tried to sneak home late on Wednesday, it had only backfired when the Professor had grabbed both Dib **and** Gaz and made them watch a movie together again. They'd both fallen asleep on different ends of the sofa, curled up tight enough to not risk touching the other. There relationship had never been as bad as it looked from the outside, but with the forced 'family time' it was starting to turn sour; both of them liked their time to themselves.

When Dib had ran out the house this morning, the Professor had been laying out breakfast for them all. Dib had stopped long enough to grab a piece of toast and listen with mounting horror to the schedule that was being planned for the weekend ahead. He'd then looked at his watch and turned on his heel, shouting something about going to see Zim after Hi Skool was finished, that he'd be home late and not to wait for him.

Now, Dib was stood with his eyes shut, listening to the bustle of people around him, the idle chatter and posturing that was normal to most teenagers. He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that when someone slammed the locker besides him with malice aforethought, his natural reactions kicked in before he really noticed.

Eyes flying open, Dib grabbed the wrist that was next to his head, in a grip tight enough to bruise tendons. He spun to face the person and as he moved, he tugged their arm until it was nearly behind there back, at which point he pressed a point on the elbow, making the arm bend before he finally shoved it hard up against the person's back. Whoever it was that had slammed their fist into the locker by Dib's head, was now whimpering and gasping while trying to stand on tiptoe to ease the pain in there arm, as Dib continued to hold tightly to their wrist.

Dib blinked and looked down slightly, seeing Crony One in front of him. That meant that Crony Two and Jeremy were nearby. Dib let go of the teen's wrist like it was diseased, and turned away wordlessly, heading quickly off to his next lesson and ignoring the mutterings going on around him.

"What's wrong Dib?"

Dib swallowed down his anger as he dropped his bag onto his desk and them himself into his seat. Zim was now sitting at the desk next to him, but since it was Art class, the seats moved regularly enough that no one commented -moved literally when it came to some of the larger project pieces.

Annoyed more at himself for the way he'd reacted, Dib explained quickly what had happened while never taking his glaring gaze away from the back of the chair in front of him. Only once he was finished did Dib look out the corner of his eye at Zim; the Irken, in his longer black haired wig and lilac/blue contacts, was sat there in shock.

"You never fight back," pointed out Zim finally, still sounding dazed.

"Yeah, I know." Snapped Dib while bile churned in his stomach and made him feel sick. He had nearly broke the guys arm!

"Then why did you?"

"I was distracted, thinking about how much I don't want to go home at the moment."

"Then why not stay with Zim this weekend?" The words came out innocently, and Dib could see Zim was looking nothing more than concerned for him. Even as he continued to just stare at him, Zim's expression only shifted from concern to confusion at the steady look. "Why the strange look? Zim hasn't done something socially outlandish or odd. I know because I hear other students inviting friends to there homes for a weekend of activities together. Sometimes several friends at once. This cannot be a misunderstanding of social positioning."

Finally Dib shook himself. His mind had jumped back to that moment in Zim's kitchen, the dream that had happened the night before it, and every night since nearly. He'd not cum into his boxers again, but he'd been awoken, painfully hard and in need of a cold shower. Neither of them had brought up the subject of what Zim had done in the kitchen, but Dib had wandered if this had been a finally airing of that topic.

"To be honest Zim, I'd be grateful." Sighed the black haired teen, dropping his head back to look up at the ceiling, so far that his scythe-lock nearly touched the desk behind him. "Dad is getting creepy. Wanting me and Gaz to spend time together..."

"You have mentioned frequently," shrugged Zim, leaning his head on his hand and watching the human. "To Zim, it sounds like your parental unit is trying to initiate a romantic relationship between you both, despite the fact you are siblings and that is frowned upon in Earth culture."

Dib froze, eyes wide but then his mind rebelled the idea in its entirety. He sat up and shook his head, "I know what you mean Zim, but it can't be something like that. My dads not that thick headed, he's a Professor of Science." Dismissed Dib with a very forced sounding chuckle, "so if its alright with you, I'll come over later on this evening. I'll run home, sneak in and get some clothes before sneaking back out again."

"I could just replicate you some garments," muttered Zim with a slight frown.

Dib smiled warmly, knowing that Zim was trying to be friendly and helpful. He didn't take any kind of rejection well, no matter how trivial or simple, so Dib reached over and poked the Irken in the head. "Stop that," he muttered with a smile, glad the room was still mostly empty. "You'll end up looking cute when your pout."

Zim blinked but it was the darkening blush on his cheeks that made Dib laugh at last, which led to Zim taking offence at the laughter and kicking him from across the gap between desks. Dib had winced with pain but winked at the still blushing Zim, forgetting all about what had happened in the corridor.

* * *

Dib forgot so successfully that when Hi Skool was finished for the day and he and Zim were heading out of the school grounds, it was only his heightened reflexes that caused him to dodge the blow that had been aimed at his head from behind. He'd grabbed onto Zim, protectively shoving him behind him while turning to face whoever it was that had swung at him.

The colour drained from his face as Dib realized that Jeremy, along with Crony One and Two, and four other guys from the Hi Skool wrestling team were all stood there. What's worse, Crony One had his arm in a sling, with a bandage wrapped around his wrist.

"You and your boyfriend are gonna pay this time," Jeremy almost shouted as he didn't hesitate to step towards the taller Dib. "You should have taken the offer to suck my cock, you faggot!"

Dib slipped his bag off his shoulder and pressed it against Zim, hearing the stuttered shock of the Irken behind him. "Don't get involved," he growled in a voice so low only Zim would hear it. "These are humans. You'll kill them."

"Fine. So long as **they** don't come at **me."** Muttered Zim darkly.

Jeremy was close enough to grab at the front of Dib's coat again, which he tried but the longer teen leaned out of the reach with almost ease. "Don't do this Jeremy." Warned Dib, taking a step back still as he raised his hands placatingly, glad that Zim had backed off a good couple of steps while still clutching the bag with the Irken plans in it. "I busted your nose pretty bad on Tuesday."

"Lucky shot pretty boy," snapped the wrestler, still moving forwards, hands outstretched while the other teens moved with him, trying to encircle Dib. "You don't even know how to fight."

Dib felt the dark urge to laugh then. Of all the most ridiculous examples of how ignorant the people were around him, this seemed to be the best. He and Zim fought all the time, so much that the student body was in the habit was walking around them in the corridors without even breaking stride.

Keeping his hands open and his body loose, Dib held his ground while the other teens formed a rough circle, with Jeremy facing Dib, Crony One and Two flanking him. Crony One glared darkly at Dib but it was nothing to his mind, the petulant sulking of a punished child. But Jeremy didn't seem to want to swing a fist at Dib, he kept reaching out to grab him, not punch; and Dib dodged each grab with ease, deflecting the thick fingered and clumsy attacks.

"Oh well," Dib said as Jeremy stumbled and straightened up, looking furious. The black haired teen just smiled darkly, knowing Zim could see his face but he never took his eyes off of Jeremy. "I guess the best defence, is a good offence."

The dark voice in the back of Dib's mind crowed with delight, and he could almost physically feel his bodies natural reactions and instincts sharpening as he finally chose to fight! Dib's right fist connected perfectly with Jeremy's jaw with so much force that he was thrown off of his feet and onto his back with ease. Continuing on with the momentum and rhythm, his left fist now came up and he took a step forward to connect it with Crony Two's cheek, causing him to stumble away a few feet.

The others in the circle started to move now. It felt for a moment they'd been frozen in shock but Dib wandered idly, as he took a blow to the stomach that did little to even hinder him, if it was more the way his body reacted to combat now? Making him faster and sharper? Making other things seem slower?

The fist to the stomach was a lucky blow that allowed him to grab the wrestlers wrist with both hands, tight enough to make him gasp and weaken as his tendons lost all feeling. Dib smiled darkly and continued to watch the teens face, as he tightened his grip further and snapped the boys bones like dry twigs. The colour drained out of the wrestlers face as he crumpled down, holding the wrist and making a nasty wailing noise. He stood there a moment, looking down at the youth with empty eyes, waiting for the guilt to flood him but nothing came.

After that, Dib had turned his attention to the others. He delivered kicks, blocked punches, broke bones and felt his blood sing as he fought! This was it, the moment's he felt alive where when he was fighting. But right now, as he fought these pathetic humans, Dib's darker side purred that he was better than them, his years fighting with Zim had proven that. He was superior in every way, he was-

"Please!"

The word made Dib stop dead, frozen in place as he panted and blinked away the battle haze. He had lifted Jeremy clean off of his feet, holding him up with one hand while the other hand -covered in blood- was cocked back to punch him again. Jeremy's face was already swollen and bruised looking, his nose looked like a running tap of blood. Slowly, Dib looked at the groaning and crying young men on the floor all around him, and it was an act of will power not to look over at Zim. Looking back at Jeremy, Dib blinked while the young man in his grip visibly shook with fear.

"I-I'm sorry," stammered Jeremy, lifting his hands to grip weakly at Dib's wrist. "B-b-but why d-did you n-never fight b-b-b-back till now?"

"Because I don't enjoy hurting people." Replied Dib in a low, serious tone. He let go of the teens top and Jeremy dropped to his knee's, his legs too weak to catch him at that moment.

"C-could have fool me," muttered Jeremy petulantly as he wiped at his streaming nose. "You were laughing."

Dib had been turning around to walk over to Zim and get his bag back, when those words had made him freeze again. He looked down at himself, seeing blood on his fists and a few stains on his blue top, but none of it was his for once. Something tightened in his chest but as his amber eyes looked up at Zim, the burning heat that quickly rose in response easily smothered the fear and guilt. Zim looked like he'd been watching something erotic, not violent; the Irken was transfixed, practically drooling as his claws had gripped tightly to Dib's bag.

Stepping closer, feeling himself shaking as the adrenaline wore off, Zim eyed him with wonder. "That was amazing," he breathed in a quiet tone, "even when we fight, it is never as beautiful as that was."

"Beautiful?" Repeated Dib in a thick voice, the fear now growing inside him.

"Yes." Nodded Zim, hot eyes moving over Dib's body now. "You are still coming to the mighty Zim's base for the weekend, to hide from your father and his planned 'family activities'?"

"Yeah," nodded Dib as they started to walk away from the pile of groaning teenagers. "Now more than ever..."

They walked in silence for a few minutes before Dib finally felt too uncomfortable, "look, I'll meet you at yours, I just... I need... I need to go."

The last words came out as a wail before Dib took off at a run and as Zim called out in surprise, he resisted the urge to look over his shoulder. He'd left Zim holding his bag, and he hardly looked where he was going, he just felt... the urge to run. To move!

It was like his body was both on fire and filled with ice. Energy burned under his skin as he ran and for a while, he didn't really care where he ran, he just had to keep moving. He ran for nearly an hour, hearing nothing but the wheezing of his own lungs, the pounding of his blood in his veins and the thumping of his feet on the floor. It was run or face what he'd done. Face what he'd done and throw up, before feeling guilt and despair wash through him.

Finally thought, Dib started to calm down and get tired. He changed direction and noticed he wasn't too far from home, slowing down now he looked around to realized that the sun was low on the horizon. Moving to a walk now, Dib shook out his legs with every other step, easing the muscles and trying to avoid cramp as he moved. He might have to make a fast get away still from his dad, especially if he wanted to stay at Zim's; the burning look in the Irken's eyes would still bare some thinking about, as did his reaction to it.

Seeing the house in the distance, his thoughts and emotions swirling, Dib only hoped he could get in and out quickly. There was too much on his mind.

* * *

Notes;

I feel I need to make a note here, mostly its to CookiesxMilkEXCITEMe. Basically darling, thank you so so much fr your comments ^_^ I was starting to doubt that I was bringing things on too slowly or even rushing things a bit. I know my grammar sucks and when I'm reading over my chapters ,they make sense to me, because I know what is suppose to be written. So, thank you all for your patients and thank you again to CookiesxMilkEXCITEMe for your amazingly sincere reviews ^_^


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve.**

* * *

The house didn't look any different than normal, noticed Dib as he moved up to the side of his home, choosing to avoid the front door. Not even thinking about it, Dib jumped into the tree near his window with ease and reached out, lifting the unlocked window and climbing into his room. It wasn't a perfect move and he winced as he landed on the floor with a thud, but his legs felt a little like jelly still from his running.

Getting as quickly to his feet as he could, Dib grabbed a spare sports bag and shoved clothes in it from his wardrobe. T-shirts, trousers, boxers and socks. Zim had the plans with him and he could access his computer remotely if needed, thought Dib as he looked around his room quickly. All done then.

Hefting the bag up, Dib leaned out the window and dropped it into the bushes ready. Nodding with satisfaction, he lifted his foot into the window ledge and made to follow, when a hand grabbed the back of his coat from behind. Dib yelped as he lost his balance, bumping into the slightly taller figure of his father.

"Where are you going son?"

The Professor didn't wait for Dib to answer, he turned and dragged him out the room and down stairs, leaving Dib little chance to resist since all his attention was on not falling down the stairs and breaking his neck. Gaz was already sat on the sofa, arms crossed and glaring bloody murder at the wall, since her Game Slave was in three pieces on the table in front of her. Dib felt an icy fear reach out and grab his heart, Gaz without a Game Slave was like a crack addict without the crack.

Dib was dropped on the sofa next to Gaz, so close he nearly fell on top of her, saving himself at the last minute. Her gaze turned to look at him, taking in the blood on his hands and top; Dib saw the momentary flicker of worry in her face, but it was gone as her searching eyes saw no wounds on him. The older teen backed away from the girl as far as the sofa would allow, but he couldn't leave it since there father was now stood before them, arms folded and looking imposing.

"Now kids," began the Professor. "I can sense some hostility from you both about this, I've had calls from Hi Skool. Daughter, you broke a girls nose when she called you a bitch on the other side of the classroom. And you Son, you beat up the entire Hi Skool wrestling team, all seven of them. When I was phoned, they were still counting the broken wrists, ribs, arms and ankles."

Dib couldn't stop the evil smug grin on his lips, especially when he heard Gaz chuckle darkly next to him, that was outstanding praise from her. They shared a look before looking back at there father.

"I've got a whole weekend of bonding activities for you," explained the Professor, looking from one to the other. "It should help deepen the bond between you both, help you move to the next step."

"Woah, what?" Gaped Gaz, so surprised that Dib got a glance of his sisters own amber eyes, wide with shock.

"Wait wait, what next step?" Demanded Dib, getting to his feet in one almost liquid movement, his legs still twinging with fatigue. "I don't want to take any 'next step' with Gaz, she's my little sister! You just don't even **think** about that kind of thing."

Dib turned and moved around the sofa, away from Gaz and his father, until he was out of reach and turned back to face his father, surprised the man hadn't just grabbed him and put him back on the sofa. "I don't have time to discuss this or deal with your weird family view's, I'm heading out to Zim's for the weekend." Dib announced.

"Who is Zim?" Asked the Professor, confused for a moment. Dib felt the anger flash through him again, his hands balling into fists as he prepared himself to shout but his father beat him to it. "Oh, I remember, that strange foreign child."

"Yes dad," growled Dib, his jaw clenched tight.

"No no, you can't do that," said the Professor, either to himself or Dib, both teen's weren't sure. "You can't go spending time with another male, not when you are in your prime. Your hormones are running nice and strong, your enhanced abilities are coming along well, this is the perfect time for you to find a mate."

The Membrane siblings froze in horror but Dib was quicker to recover, "what the hell are you talking about? I'm not going to find a 'mate', I don't need a 'mate'! I'm going to my friends house for the weekend, I'll be back Monday when all this crazy shit is over."

Professor Membrane finally seemed to show some emotion, his usually happy and over-loud tone was gone, his voice coming out now with anger. "I understand now. Your becoming emotionally attached to this male, aren't you?"

Dib's face when from the red of anger to the brighter red of embarrassment like a set of fast acting traffic lights. "What?" He spluttered, "what the hell are you-"

"You are forming a permanent emotional bond with this male, Zim." Repeated the Professor, unfolding his arms and resting them on his hips, "that was not planned for since a male and male bond wouldn't produce offspring. The whole point of raising a male and female together was so they could produce offspring."

"Oh god!" Breathed Gaz, getting to her feet and taking a few backward steps away from the man, as the horror of everything started to sink in. "You can't be serious!"

"So what if I care for Zim?!" Shouted Dib suddenly, that dark voice in his mind seemed to be in control now, shouting for him. "I don't know dad, its hard to know what love is with a family like this one. But no matter what you think, I am never. Never. Going to become sexually involved with my own little Sister!"

Dib was shaking and Gaz actually looked pale, as the tension in the room grew. Dib was breathing hard now, and since nothing else was about to be said, he turned and pulled the door open. On the other side were many men and women, dressed in identical and familiar white lab coats. Backing away from the door a step, Dib turned his head to look at the towering figure of his father.

"I see that raising the subjects as siblings was a foolish mistake," said the Professor almost solemnly as the white coated people started to move into the room. "I believe the female is in fine condition and viable for another pairing, but we will have to move quickly since she is in her breeding prime. The male must be defective. A shame since I modeled him off of my own DNA."

Dib stood there, staring at nothing as his father spoke, his word being destroyed around him with each word. It was true that neither he or Gaz could remember ever seeing a Mother around the place, or a picture of one or... anything really; but they'd honestly never thought to ask and as they'd grown, the need to ask hadn't seemed as important any more.

But he suddenly felt hollow.

"Okay, since I raised the male as my son, I do feel some responsibility towards him," sighed the Professor, lifting one hand to grip his chin as he thought. "If we simple lock him in the Burton's Home for the Mentally Lost, they may be able to cure him of this Homosexual attitude before we have a fresh clone ready for breeding. We shall see which happens first. Take him."

Dib put up no resistance as many of the coated figures grabbed hold of his arms and shoulders, he just stood there and blinked. It was as one of them held up a needle to the light, pushing a few drops of some clear liquid out of the end to make sure the needle was ready, then the warning lights came on in Dib's mind and he reacted, instincts taking over. With a suddenly jerk of movement, he was out of his coat and the grip of the many white-coated workers. More moved for him though; he took out one with a punch, another with the back swing of the first punch, a kick, a punch again but there were too many and he couldn't guard his back that well against so many. He was still tired from fighting the entire wrestling team and then running none stop for an hour. Dib cried out as he felt the needle stab into his shoulder, the burning pain of the drug quickly entering his system.

The sudden sensation of weight in his limbs made Dib fall to his knee's, then his bum but he managed to hold his balance long enough to look over at Gaz. He had never seen her scared, not truly scared. There had been angry for most of the time, even happy a few times, but fear had never been in his sisters spectrum, no matter how much he'd wanted it at times. As he finally fell backwards to the floor, the last thing he remembered seeing was Gaz's face and the only words he could manage were mouthed more than spoken.

"Tell Zim."

* * *

Note;

I'd just like to make a not at this point, I personally do not hold any homophobic views and in the chapter, the Professor doesn't either. Some people see homosexuality as a cultural thing, others as a genetic thing; whatever your views, I was trying to lean towards the Prof thinking Dib could be... re-educated. And for anyone else that may be angry at me (there's always one ;3) please feel free to google 'cure for homosexuality' and be angry at those people :D


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen.**

Now things start to get a little... strange :3

* * *

There was darkness for a while.

It wasn't sleep and it wasn't that peaceful void you get before dreaming, where you seem to float and wait.

No this was just pure darkness. There was sound but it was far off and hard to understand, like listening to a neighbours radio that wasn't tuned in properly. Along with the sound, there occasionally came sensations of movement or touch, but like his ability to hear what was happening around him, it was disjointed and hard to understand. He was also completely unable to move himself and he'd tried, was still trying. It didn't feel like it was too heavy to move, more like it wasn't his body to move in the first place.

Disconnected from it all, Dib floated in the darkness, straining to hear and understand what was going on around him. He felt like he'd started to wake up at one point, the sound returning and his body started to feel more like his own, his fingers had twitched and he'd felt the cotton material of bed sheets underneath him. But someone was still watching him because soon afterwards there was the stab of pain and the burning feeling of chemicals in his blood stream again.

Now as he surfaced, he felt alone.

The darkness didn't feel so unnatural either, his senses were returning at last. Dib realised that he was laying on a bed, the surface underneath him wasn't soft but there as a slight give where he lay, proving that it at least wasn't the floor. Listening carefully, everything was still too quiet for his liking but Dib couldn't hear anyone else near by, no breathing, no shifting or rustle of clothes.

Opening his eyes, Dib had a moment to see that he was in a completely cream coloured room with a ceiling light -the bulb secured behind thick a plastic cover- and no windows, when the stabbing fingers of the headache touched. His eyes screwed up tight as he groaned and shifted on the bed to cover his face, feeling the many aches and pains in his body as he moved, and groaning again.

Everything seemed to hurt. Why?

Oh wait, memories came back in waves. The running, but why was he running? What had he been running from? Ah yes, there is was. The fight at school, where he'd single handedly taken out the entire Hi Skool wrestling team with no more damage taken than a punch in the stomach. Dib winced as that memory hung around in his pain riddled mind for a moment, but even as he thought about it, part of him very much enjoyed the image of Jeremy looking pale and scared while Dib took out most of his friends. Even with his arms covering his eyes to try and block the light from his pounding head, Dib felt a smile stretch over his features even while guilt swirled around his stomach.

Revenge may have been best served cold, or whatever, but it sure was sweet. Did that make revenge, ice cream? The stray thought in his mind made Dib chuckle quietly, and instantly he thought of Zim, it sounded like a conclusion he may come up with. As much of a genius Zim was, he was very dense in some aspects of life .

Zim.

Oh god!

Memory bit down hard now as he remembered that had been intending to go to Zim's house after Hi Skool, that even after he'd had that fight and ran until he'd finally grown tired, he'd still been intending to go see Zim afterwards. Dib shifted his arms slightly, allowing a slip of light to touch his closed eyelids. Since this didn't cause a fresh stab of pain to lance his brain, Dib gingerly started to raise his arms some more until they now lay above his head.

Did Zim know what had happened to him? Was he worried about him? Would he come and try to help him? Something told him that being in this place, what was it his father had called it? 'Burton's Home for the Mentally Lost'. Something about that name, gave Dib the impression that this place would be nothing like The Crazy House for Boys, that he'd frequented as a child.

Opening his eyes slowly, Dib winced but the pain was starting to ease off now, enough for him to risk lifting his head off of the poor excuse for a pillow for a better look around. Pushing himself up gently, feeling muscles twang and ping up and down his body, Dib managed to get himself sitting upright. His head swam a little and his stomach churned but he leaned back against the wall behind him, noticing for the first time that there seemed to be some kind of foam padding covering the walls. It explained the muffled silence around him, this room was partly sound proofed as well as 'crazy proofed'.

The room contained a bed and a stainless steel toilet but nothing else, no other furniture or even windows. The light coming from the single ceiling fitting, added with the cream walls made everything seem off colour and yellowish. Drab. Depressing.

Dib sighed as he wondered if Gaz or Zim knew where he was? And if so, would they try and help him or just leave him here to rot?

Always his thoughts returned to Zim, he realized with a soft sigh, and after what had happened the last time they were together, the Irken probably thought Dib hated him. Would Zim even bother to try and save him? That thought came with a twisting feeling in his guts, and Dib grimaced as he had a nasty suspicion where that feeling had come from and what it meant.

That pathetic excuse for a human being -the one that he'd called father for seventeen years of his life- had accused him of 'forming an emotional bond' with Zim, and that Dib was... defective. He'd only thrown Dib in **this** place because he seemed to feel he owed him something, that they could 'cure him'.

So what if he did feel something for Zim, how did that make him a 'defective'? What had the Professor meant by that? The way he'd talked about him and Gaz, it made them sound like a science project; 'Enhanced abilities' 'finding a mate', had the Professor done what Dib think he had? The thought about being non-human didn't make Dib as uncomfortable as he had thought it should. Maybe it was because of everything that he'd gone through since he'd first met Zim? All that fighting, plotting and need to survive? Even when things had changed slightly between them, when they'd become more like rivals than real enemies, the sensations of fear and desperation hadn't lessened one bit. Neither had the fighting, come to think about it.

What the hell does it matter anyway? Muttered that dark voice, once more making itself known in his mind. No one ever cared about you here, no one ever saw you as anything except 'a poor insane boy', and even when you'd grown up, they continued to think you were crazy.

Only now, they think that I'm gay as well, and that that part of my 'insanity' can be cured, Dib thought grimly. Who the hell still believed that being gay was a mental illness? No one had cared for centuries until someone in a church had decided they didn't like it, and who said he was gay anyway?

Who are you trying to fool? Snickered the dark voice, seeming more amused now than before. And isn't it odd that you find questioning your sexuality more important that questioning your species?

Dib hated his brain at that moment, as he shifted on the bed and tried to find something to distract himself. They'd taken his boots and long black coat, he was left in his jeans and blood speckled t-shirt still. Even his socks were gone, he thought with a frown, wiggling his bare white toes as they rested on the floor.

Your avoiding the topic, the sing-song words of the dark voice moved through his mind.

Shut up, thought Dib, annoyed that his usual tactics of 'run away' or 'punch it' weren't applicable when your arguing with yourself. But the darker side of himself was right in part, he didn't care that he wasn't properly human. Sure he'd been made from human DNA, he was probably a direct clone of the Professors DNA, and it would explain why the hell they looked so similar while he looked nothing like Gaz. He was human enough to have the same bits as everyone else, a brain, stomach, bowls, lungs, heart... everything was the same so why the hell was he all that different?

Different enough to be labelled a defective.

Again that voice seemed to strike at the heart of the matter, making him grimace in pain and pull his legs up to his chest, resting his arms on his knees and glaring at the wall. A defective. Proof from his fathers own lips that he was a disappointment in all aspects of his life and useful for nothing. Oh, except maybe 'breeding' with his little sister; apparently his father still believed that he could be 'cured' and put to use still. Can't forget that now, thought Dib sarcastically.

Silence seemed to rule in his mind for a moment as he sat there, mind as empty as his heart felt. He was still too tired from the strange drugs' they'd used to start forming a way out of here, he'd give it another ten minutes or so of moping before he worked out where he was and how to escape.

Gods above, he missed Zim.

Just the thought of solving this problem before the Irken could, would have had motivated him enough to get up... But now, he was just sat there... He felt like a toy that had been discarded by a child, partly broken and soiled, but still whole.

That was enough of that! Thought Dib savagely, bringing his hands down either side of himself on the bed. He'd have to work out where he was and how he was going to escape. Getting up, he winced as a few muscles still had something to say about that idea, Dib started to stretch out the aches and pains while looking around the room properly. He was just glad they'd remembered to leave him his... his glasses?

Dib frowned and he reached up to touch his face, then looked around himself, more with the shock that he could see perfectly fine than because he was taking in any real details of the place. He could see. He could see even better than when he'd used to wear his glasses!

'Your enhanced abilities are come along well'. Once again those words danced across his mind with all the pleasure of watching Gir trying to do a strip tease. Enhanced abilities... coming along well... that must mean that he was changing still, and that puberty had only masked his abnormal strength and speed. Even spending years fighting Zim, tooth and nail, didn't account for his physical skills and how far they out matched the others around him.

So the newest development was that he could see perfectly fine without his glasses, if it was a new one or one he'd just never realized until now, he couldn't be sure since he rarely ever opened his eyes without his glasses over them.

Focus. Time to focus.

The room, look at the room you are in, Dib told himself, standing up straight and looking around properly. He examined the door, paced the size of the room to take its measure, examined and touched the weird foam on the walls. The door had no handle on this side and no visible hinges either. The bed was a metal frame and actually welded to the floor of the room, connected through a few slits cut into the padding on the floor. Even the light fitting in the ceiling was impossible to fiddle with since the plastic covering it was screwed tightly into place. The only good thing to come from his thorough examination of the room was that he knew it was three meters square, just shy of ten foot by ten, the bed was against the wall opposite the door and the toilet was in the same wall as the door.

Also, there were no camera's of any kind. No holes or gaps in the foam for one to be fitted, and nothing in the light fitting that showed any camera's.

Sitting down on the bed again and leaning against the wall, Dib looked at the door again and tried to work out what might happen next. It was highly unlikely that he'd be thrown in here and left to rot, for a start, the room was well made and kept, despite this being a place for insane people to be 'cured'.

That meant that someone would come in eventually to feed him and eventually talk to him. He'd have to wait, gather more information about this place and the people that worked here before he tried to escape. Taking a calming breath, Dib closed his eyes and thought carefully. They might be expecting him to try and escape quickly, the moment he was shown the first chance for freedom, so there would be a lot of guards around.

Some kind of intuition sparked in his mind and he nodded slowly, not just guards but guards armed with needles to put him back to sleep. And drugs, drugs in his food to keep him calm while they tried to 'fix' him. Dib frowned at this new idea, but it felt so right. More than just a guess, it felt like the edges of a premonition, but it was just a thought in his mind. He'd have to be careful what he ate and drank for the short time he was here, but since he still ate the same amount as a sick child, a few days without either wouldn't begin to bother him too badly if he wasn't fighting.

So, now the question was how long would he have to wait?


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen.**

* * *

So, now the question was how long would he have to wait?

The answer turned out to be, exactly one hour after he'd woken up.

There was the sound of someone moving outside his room, then they paused but there wasn't the sound of keys in a lock, only a quiet beeping that told Dib that his room had an electronic lock. Perfect. Key's and lock picks were tricky things sometimes, electronic locks were much easier, since all you needed was a piece of plastic.

Opening his eyes as the door swung open, Dib kept calm, his expression neutral as he watched a man walk in with two larger men flanking him. The man in the middle was clearly some kind of doctor or therapist; he had nicely cut hair, a white lab coat open at the front and a professional looking shirt and tie underneath. He was also good looking, like a super model that had walked out of a photo shoot to instead help the 'mentally lost' in his spare time.

"Mr Membrane?" Asked the doctor, his brawnier pair of helpers choosing to take up places in the corners of the room opposite the bed and stay silent. Dib said nothing but continued to watch the doctor, this seemed to be enough for him because he smiled. "My name is Dr Bedlam, my area of expertise is curing homosexuality in young men. You do know why your here?"

Dib's jaw clenched tight for a moment, so many things he wanted to say but he had to make them think he was harmless... for now, he opted for a shrug. Dr Bedlam took a few steps closer and knelt down in front of Dib, but with the teens height, it ended up making the Doctor have to look up to meet his eyes.

"Its okay Mr Membrane, you admitted that you are sick and we're here to cure you now." He said in a gentle and kind tone, like he was trying to explain that Dib had cancer, not that he thought he was gay. "You probably feel very awkward at the moment, guilty that you enjoy the pleasure of men and not women. But we'll make it better for you. Soon you'll be as normal as the rest of us."

No threat ever given to Dib by **anyone**, had caused him to feel so much fear as he did at that moment. Or anger. No matter how many times he'd saved the world from threats other than Zim, no matter how many times he'd nearly died -and there had been enough of them- he'd never wanted so badly to hurt someone for there idiotic and misguided way, as he did right then. But he'd hurt too many people recently, so he pushed the dark thoughts away and met the man's eyes.

"I'm not gay." Said Dib at last and the man smiled warmly at him.

"That's right, if you-" began the Doctor but Dib interrupted him.

"My dad threw me in here because I refused to have sex with my own sister." Dib sneered as he spoke, unable to stop himself from despising the man before him, and he'd always thought he'd hated Zim. No, what he'd felt for Zim had been a lot simpler, hatred and fear to start with but he'd never loathed the very existence of the alien... Okay, he had, but it had never been like this.

"Because she was a woman?" Asked the Doctor and Dib felt his mouth drop open at the question.

"No. Because she was my sister!" He answered angrily, but he kept as still as possible since the two heavies in the corners of the room had twitched. "What the hell is wrong with you? I don't want to have sex with my little sister, its sick."

"I understand," nodded the Doctor, like he actually did. "I can see that the idea of touching a woman would make you feel sick like that, but saying its your sister is-"

"No, she really **is** my sister." Demanded Dib, feeling that same as he had when trying to make people in Skool see that Zim was an alien. No matter how right he was, no one seemed to actually listen to the words coming out of his mouth. "My dads the sick fuck, you should get him in here to explain it all. He can start with why the hell he thinks I'd have sex with my sister, and move on from there."

Dr. Bedlam continued to watch him for a few moments in silence before he came to some kind of conclusion, he nodded to himself and straightened up, looking over at the two guards in the room. "I think we should give Mr Membrane some breakfast and then start on the first stages of aversion therapy. Room twenty-one will be free at ten."

"What time is it?" Asked Dib quickly as the group turned to leave the room. They paused and looked back at him, almost surprised that he'd spoken to them. "There's no windows or clock."

Dr. Bedlam shrugged and looked at his wrist, "its nine in the morning. You were left to sleep out the night. Breakfast will be appearing in half an hour."

And that was all he was told before the group left and shut the door behind themselves. There was no sign of any panels cut into the door for people to look threw, or a slot at the bottom, but Dib thought that was more from the smooth plastic coating on this side of the door.

Silence started to roll around him again and Dib sighed heavily, trying to stay calm. He'd give it a day at most, he thought darkly, he'd have to find out what this 'aversion therapy' was and how often he'd have to have it, and if there were any other therapies he'd have to undergo. If they weren't going to take him out of this room, it would be harder to escape, and he couldn't hang around too long if he was going to avoid eating the food here.

Dib nodded to himself. He'd escape, he'd find Gaz and make sure she was safe from whatever the Professor planned, then he'd find Zim and... and... just make sure he was okay. If things calmed down after that, he hoped that Zim would let him help him on his nano-bot project still. That was something to think about, he thought, something to work on that will distract him from this place and help keep him sane.

* * *

Breakfast did indeed arrive in half an hour. It was delivered by a meek looking young woman that wouldn't look up to meet his eye, she placed the tray on the bed and left, every step was careful and precise like she'd fall apart if she wasn't cautious. Dib was still sat on his low bed, his legs long enough to allow him to rest his feet comfortably on the floor while leaning against the wall. He'd been sitting still with his eyes closed again, trying to think over the nano-bot plans from memory when she'd knocked on his door and walked in.

Threw the doorway, Dib had glimpsed one of the burly guard's standing there with a trolley while a few other meek cowering women moved around with trays. His room didn't open onto a corridor, it opened onto a space that held a few sofa's around a low table, but he couldn't see much more than that without moving. His eyes watched the girl, seeing that every fibre of her being screamed that she wasn't really here any more; whatever was wrong with her, most of her mind had retreated inside of itself and she seemed almost asleep now.

Dib felt anxiety thread threw him and he worried that he'd end up like that if he didn't get out of here. He looked at the tray without moving any closer to it, it looked like grey porridge with a small glass of milk. It was tempting to help himself to the cutlery but he had no where he could conceal it that would stay hidden, he'd have to make a secret pocket in the padding if he was going to stay here longer. But taking the cutlery without eating the food would tip them off that he was planning something.

Once the door was shut again, Dib got up and moved to the toilet. He'd not used it yet, but it was a simple design that looked like a metal bucket with no water in it until it was flushed and a flap opened at the bottom to accept waste and the water that moved it away. He didn't need to use it, but he should make an effort to look like he was eating his food. Picking up the bowl and spoon, he moved to the toilet and quietly dropped two thirds of the mess into the pan before hitting the flush and stepping away.

Putting the bowl back on the tray, he sat on the bed and sighed.

Curiosity over came him for a moment and Dib looked at the spoon on the tray, picking it up and bringing it to his face. He sniffed it carefully, noticing that something seemed off about it -and not just the fact that he could tell porridge had a smell- so he stuck out his tongue and touched it to a lump of the breakfast cereal.

Trusting that his sense of taste had been improved along with his other senses, Dib tasted the food and then recoiled, nearly throwing the spoon across the room instead of putting it back on the tray. There had been the familiar cardboard and milk taste of porridge but something else was mixed in with it, something that made him think of how perfume smelled. It was a ridicules thing to think of, but he couldn't put a name to the sharp but almost floral taste, it was just nasty and wrong.

Glad he'd not eaten it, he leaned back against the wall and tried not to sigh again. Patients, he told himself, patients and he'd get what he needed. He was just silently thankfully that his intuition had been on the mark, and he'd not eaten the food.

Twenty minutes later another blank faced woman knocked on the door before pushing it open, she came in and collected the tray, keeping her eyes fixed on the floor before her. When Dib shifted on the bed, she jumped and scurried to the door like he'd shouted.

When it seemed nearly ten, someone else came to his room. It was a female nurse now with a bright smile that matched her bright uniform, she came with a wheel chair and two more guards. "Hello Mr Membrane, my name is Nurse Tony and I'm here to take you to your first therapy session." She explained as she wheeled in the chair, "you just hope into here and we'll be there in a few minutes."

"I can walk." Said Dib, almost flatly.

"Oh I can see that silly," smiled the nurse, almost giggling. "And such long legs you've got too. No, all patients must be transported around the Home in wheel chairs by a member of staff."

"Why?" He asked, still unmoving while he eyed the chair. There were leather buckle straps on it too, around the wrists, waste and ankles.

"It's just policy Mr Membrane," she answered with a tilt of the head. "Unfortunately what is policy for one, is policy for all."

There was a moment of tension as no one moved or spoke, the guards were probably waiting for Dib to resist the wheel chair while the Nurse seemed to just be waiting for him to make up his mind. Before one of the brutish guards could take into his head that Dib needed to be helped into the chair by means of a fist, Dib sighed and got to his feet with almost liquid grace. Standing up, he realised that he was as tall as the tallest of the guards but he was about as wide as the Nurse behind the chair.

Looking down at the chair, Dib winced, "are we sure I'm going to fit properly?" He asked, still trying to seem harmless. The Nurse just giggled and reassured him in happy tones, that his long frame would be just fine in the chair and that she would be careful not to bump into anything. Feeling a bit like an idiot, Dib sat in the chair, putting but bare feet on the foot rests and resting his arms in his lap, not touching the arm rests at all, hoping not to give the guards any ideas.

Room twenty-one wasn't too far, but it gave Dib a good chance to have a look at the Burton's Home for the Mentally Lost. The room he'd seen threw his door was big, open and square, there were another fifteen rooms that led on to it with a large open corridor leading out the room. Near the top of the room, at the height of the first floor, were large windows that allowed the summer sun to stream in but Dib couldn't see anything except sky out of them. They looked promising nevertheless.

He was wheeled to the corridor and he could see a collection of door's, all numbered with small signs on some of them, but everything seemed to be abbreviated to fit and he couldn't make heads of tails of the letters. The ceiling was lower here and the floor was the squeaky stuff used in hospitals, with the poor lighting it made the place seem dingy and ominous.

Looking around curiously, thinking that no one would think his curiosity out of place, he took care to notice every emergency exit sign and the sheer amount of swipe locks on the doors. How hard would it be to get his hands on a card? He thought idly, as they stopped at room twenty-one and he watched the Nurse reach out to swipe her own card threw the reader. She kept her card in her right breast pocket -awkward territory to reach, while he guessed that the guards had there's in pockets or on lanyards around there necks.

As the door to room twenty-one swung open, Dib's natural instincts were to jump out the chair and run! Inside there looked like something Zim would be proud to have in his lab; a table that was covered in straps but clearly designed to be electronically moved, to move the subject into different positions for whatever reasons. There were trolleys of equipment lined up along the wall and a large projector that was already shining white light onto a blank wall.

Dr. Bedlam was already in the room, sitting at a desk to one side of the door and reading something on his desk. "Ah good Nurse Tony, please help Mr Membrane onto the table." Ordered the Doctor, looking up as we came in.

"Here we go then Mr Membrane," she said, coming to a stop and putting the brakes on the wheelchair with a practiced movement. "We're going to have to put you on the table and just strap your wrists and ankles down, so when it moves you, you don't fall off of it."

"Strap me to that?" Dib asked, alarmed. "What do you mean, when it moves?"

"Oh don't worry," reassured the Nurse with another giggle. Dib was starting to hate giggles. "It just lifts you up to see the screen properly, its more like a chair than a bed, but it can go fully flat if needed."

Dib smiled weakly and stood up from the chair, slowly moving to the table and climbing on. He wasn't happy to do this, but with the guards in the room still, it was too many to fight at the moment. He just hoped they'd leave the room once this 'therapy session' started. The Nurse hummed happily to herself as she started to strap in his wrists and ankles, but then she moved onto one around his waist and head, another set around his biceps and thighs.

"What the hell is this?" Dib nearly shouted as he realized he was almost completely immobile, held in place in the table/chair. Tugging at the straps, they would prove hard to break.

"Now stay calm Mr Membrane," soothed Dr Bedlam as he appeared in Dib's limited range of vision. "Everyone panic's the first time, you'll get used to it quickly."

The Nurse reappeared again now, she had two little pads in her hands and she stuck them to Dib's temples before she lifted up his top with ease and started to position two more little sensor's. Dib couldn't stop the way his face flushed as the woman touched him, and he knew he blushed harder as she noticed and giggled.

After the little sensor's, there came some different looking attachments. They were bigger and looked like a silver pad with clear taping around it to secure it in place. These were attached to the back of Dib's hands and around near the wrist, before the Nurse reached for his trousers. Dib shouted and tried to move his hips out the way of her fingers, but the straps prevented anything more than a little wiggling.

"Relax Mr Membrane," smiled the Nurse warmly as she undid his trousers. "I may be a woman but you don't need to feel sickened, I'm just attaching these little things... here."

Dib yelped as he felt something get stuck to his inner thigh, far too close to his cock for him to be happy about the Nurse being anywhere near there. He didn't need the flash of intuition to know that whatever was about to happen, it was going to hurt and he wasn't going to endure it well.

"Now, the therapy can begin," said the Doctor in a kind and calm voice. "Simply put, we show you a series of images and monitor your reactions."

Okay... Where were they trying to go with this? Dib thought suddenly, a different worry filling him. Despite his earlier internal arguments, he wasn't sure if he even found other **human beings** sexual interesting since his only real taste of desire was directed towards someone who wasn't. What if he didn't react to any of it? What would they do then? Accuse him of lying?

This was not going to end well.

* * *

Note;

Again, the 'cure' thing is not what I think or believe, and if you were going for true sensible realism, you'd not be reading a story where one of the main characters is a Green Alien. ^_^ I know Homosexuality can be a touchy subject, but this is just a story, please don't feel the need to review and tell me about it. I'm mostly aiming to ridicule the 'Pray the Gay Away' group of society and, if you do a Wikipedia or Google search on such facilities, you will find they really do exist :(


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen.**

* * *

Dib gasped with pain as he was thrown into his room, he landed on the lightly padded floor in a heap. The door was slammed shut behind him and he lay there for a few minutes, getting himself under control before he trusted himself to move.

This was his fourth day here.

They had found out by day two that he wasn't eating his food, when asked he'd told them it tasted funny. They had offered to make him anything he asked for, so when he'd asked for a pizza from Porky's he had been promptly smashed across the face. But he'd still not eaten yet, they were waiting him out, continuing to offer him food at every meal time.

The 'aversion therapy' was little more than electric shock torture. It hadn't worked properly the first time since every image they'd shown him -and there had been lots! So many different erotic images that Dib had been a little concerned by the fact that neither the Doctor or Nurse reacted at all- had had no reaction. Men or women, nothing sparked his interest. They'd briefly shown him a few children, to see if his tastes fell that way instead but he'd recoiled against those, his disgust extremely evident.

After an hour of nothing, Dr. Bedlam had grown annoyed and worried. He'd then ordered Dib to be unstrapped, that another patient would be due in an hour and that the Doctor wanted to do some research on his reactions. Dib had been taken back to room twenty-one at three o'clock that same day, strapped in and reassured once more.

This time, the Doctor had changed his tactics, explaining that rejecting his attraction to the men on the screen was commendable, but Dib still needed 'proper treatment' to help with his strong willpower. That's when the electric shocks had started; every time a man came on the screen, or two women doing something together, Dib was jolted hard enough for his muscles to briefly lock up or spasm.

But with his higher than normal pain tolerance, Dib hadn't done more than grunt slightly as the shocks had tugged at his nerves, although it was true that the first few left him gasping with pain. This also seemed to annoy the Doctor, and Dib wondered idly if Dr Bedlam also had a dark voice in the back of his mind that whispered to him. Dr. Bedlam had started to alternate the currents strength, fiddling with the dials so the more erotic an image, the more it hurt. After another forty minutes, Dib had been sweating hard and panting with the effort to keep his screams inside.

They'd unstrapped him and took him back to his room to recover, until seven that night, when the guards and Nurse had come to take him for another session of therapy. That last one had only been forty minutes long but the alternating treatment had began from the start, and still he hadn't cried out in pain.

It had been the same everyday since then.

* * *

Pushing himself up onto his hands and knee's, Dib chuckled weakly to himself, and crawled to his bed. He was tired, but a few hours of rest and he'd be back in working order. This last session had been his morning session and Dr Bedlam was starting to get very angry with him for continuing to resist his 'treatment'. He'd tried talking to Dib before he started each session, using that friendly and calm tone, smiling and everything, but Dib kept his mouth shut now and just smiled wickedly at him.

The dark voice in the back of his mind whispered to him then, as he pulled himself upright, sitting and leaning against the wall. It murmured that Zim would be proud of his resistance, claiming that it was right in someone who was worthy enough to be Zim's enemy. Just thinking that brought a soft smile to Dib's features and he shifted to lay down, a short nap would do him good. It wasn't like his dreams were haunted by lust filled fantasies any more, now they held sweet black oblivion, he was too tired to dream... too tired even for nightmares.

Out of all of this, the one good thing to come to him was that he was able to attune his intuition perfectly. He could rely on it as readily as he could on his eyes or ears. It had come to him before his midday session on the third day, to concentrate on that feeling of understanding and knowing that he'd felt before. Dib had meditated on it before he'd been picked up for his session, getting enough warning from his intuition to know to look calm and casual before he was collected by the Nurse and her guards. He'd simply held onto that feeling as the session had started, forcing himself with every ounce of his concentration to be able to predict the shocks from the machine before the image had even appeared.

There had been enough misses that Dib knew hadn't got it down perfectly in the first session, he could admit that to himself. But two sessions after that first, he'd improved with the speed expected of a genius. And with a skill honed by pain.

It was definitely easier to withstand the shock if he knew it was coming, Dib thought smugly, as sleep started to rest its wings around him. His intuition was also good enough to let him know when the session would be ending soon or when someone was about to walk past his door. He had no clock, but he always knew when another meal would be delivered threw his door by a half dead looking woman. There would have to be a lot of experimentation once he was free, but he thought he could grow to like this 'enhanced ability'.

There was another name for his amazing intuition, precognition. It didn't come with a flash of an image, it just came as understanding, as knowledge before he had any right to really know.

His next plan was to focus on it further, to see if it would help him to know when to grab for one of the swipe cards. Most of the guards wore them in there trouser pockets, and since he was carried back from his sessions over the shoulder of a guard -his frame being too big for a wheelchair when he was unable to even sit up properly- he could reach in and remove one easily enough.

Without even thinking about it, he knew that his 'enhanced ability' would help him to over come the odds when it came to escape. He'd known when someone was going to come around a corner or if the coast was clear before he stepped into the corridor.

There were limitations though, and Dib frowned as he rolled onto his back, an arm over his eyes to block out the ever present light. If it was easy to predict, like a routine or a combination lock, then he would be able to predict it, but spontaneous things -like being slapped around the face because Dr. Bedlam was frustrated with you- had little warning. He'd have to remember that, Dib thought just before sleep claimed him.

* * *

"Your so lucky," giggled Nurse Tony as she wheeled Dib to the therapy room. They'd walked past room twenty-one where his daily tortures had been held, and he knew suddenly that they were going to a larger room, a viewing room that would hold more people. They... they had something planned for him, something that would 'help him' but the group that had formed were all interested in a 'homosexual that resisted being cured, despite admitting he was ill'.

Sick bastards.

Dib was managing to hold his sanity together by willpower alone now, something he'd never really thought about before he was thrown in here, thoughts of seeing Zim and Gaz again helped him threw the hours of rest. He was glad that he'd slept for a few hours before being awoken by the ever happy, Nurse Tony. The very same person that was busy chattering away happily behind him about why he was so lucky; it seemed that Dr. Bedlam had been in touch with others in his -outdated- field of expertise and a lot of them where gathering to try and 'help' him. Dib found it hard to believe places like this even existed anymore, let alone that there may be other such facilities. The world would never stop surprising him.

Today would be the day that he'd have to make his move. The thought came to Dib like liquid metal, hot and burning, searing away the last of his fatigue while empowering him to survive whatever he was about to go through. He'd have to fight his way out without actually hurting anyone, not really hurting them, Dib knew he'd have to be careful and keep his control rock hard.

"Here we go," said Nurse Tony, pushing him into a room that looked more like a circular lecture hall than a medical room. Two semi-circles of wooden seats rose in three tiers around a middle space, the middle space was obviously for whatever was being taught at the moment so currently it held a familiar looking table/chair and the rolling carts that carried the equipment. Dr Bedlam was also stood there, looking nervous and happy in one sick mix.

"This is going to be amazing Mr Membrane," explained the Doctor excitedly as the wheelchair was parked besides the table. The two guards stepped up now and Dib was lifted onto the table like he'd no ability to move on his own and was little more than a doll, he was strapped in and taped full of sensors while the Doctor continued to talk. "I've spoken to many of my colleges about this, your reluctance to talk and the fact you don't seem to desire direct homosexual intercourse but you've made no positive progress in the right direction."

"Are you ready Dr Bedlam?" Asked an older gentleman, his hair grey and his face lined but serious. Dr Bedlam seemed more like a kid at Christmas than Dib could have thought possible of the despised man, and he longed to be out of there.

"Yes Dr Nicholson," nodded Dr Bedlam, stepping back so the older man could approach Dib.

The black haired youth looked at the Doctor now standing next to him, unable to turn his head but still able to see him clearly. Dib knew what the doctor would see; long, thin young man with a black scythe lock that never flattened to the rest of his hair and amber eyes, he was badly in need of a bath and some fresh clothes.

"Mr Membrane, what we have agreed to do is very simple." Explained Dr Nicholson, his voice sounded more empty than anything else and he did little to try and sound nice. "We're going to inject you with something that will relax your control over your body, allow you to react to the images how you'd like to; and while showing you the images, we'll be questioning you to see if it helps explain the mystery around you."

"What if I don't want to be injected with this stuff?" Asked Dib, breaking his self imposed silence at last as a trickle of fear ran threw him.

"It doesn't matter what you think, you are sick." And the Doctor nodded at someone on the other side of the table, all the warning Dib got before he felt the prick of a needle and a burning sensation in his vein. It was similar to when he'd been put to sleep but he doubted it would be the same drug, they wanted him awake to look at there weird porno pictures.

Dib gritted his teeth as the burning dissipated into his arm and faded to a tingle, but even as he tried to stay calm, he could almost **feel** the drug already working at the edges of his mind. He grunted as he closed his eyes, trying to stay calm, to stay in control, keeping his breathing even but it wasn't working. Even as he was strapped in, he started to feel a little dizzy and giddy. Dib suspected that this was what being drunk must be like; a small part of yourself is able to sit there and watch what was happening, horrified at yourself, while the rest of you did whatever felt like a good idea at the time.

His breathing became more of a pant as Dib tried to shift about in his bounds, feeling no give in them and smiling lazily, opening his eyes at last. Dr Nicholson nodded again and the table/chair under Dib moved to position him ready for him to see the projector screen. Dib's mind felt fuzzy and bubbly at the same time, so when the first image of a man and woman together came on the screen, he giggled and was shocked lightly for it. He hissed in irritation at the pain but the next image appeared on the screen to distract him, a man posing in an erotic position but the model looked more bored than aroused and he said as much. Dib got shocked for his honesty but he only laughed again.

It continued for another thirty minutes like this, with more pictures. Like the first session, there were pictures of everything! From soft porn to hardcore, to weird kinky acts and even strange outfits. Part of Dib was horrified to hear himself talking casually and getting almost continually shocked for his punishment, but it was all going fine until an image of someone painted green appeared on the screen.

The picture showed a slim man, painted green for someone reason, being mounted by a man that had been painted blue. There were other things in the image that probably helped explain it, but he didn't see anything else in the picture, the only thought that came to mind, dropped from Dib's lips.

"Zim."

"What?" Asked one of the many Doctors that had filed into the room and been ignored by the high teen. All of them had had questions, either for Dib or the two Doctors stood next to him, but his attention had been entirely on the board and Dib had ignored them.

"That reminds me of Zim," he said sadly. "He was the reason I was thrown in here."

"So one of the men in this image reminds you of your lover?" Asked one of the doctors, almost eagerly.

Dib snorted and giggled, "Zim's not a man, he's an alien. I don't even know if he's got any bits down there." Inside, Dib was clawing at his face with embarrassment, but that didn't matter outside. "I've tried to tell people for years, but it just ended up with me getting thrown in the Crazy House for Boys."

There was some mild muttering from the various doctors around the room but the image remained on the screen, and it seemed Dib felt talkative. "I've never been with anyone, never touched anyone or had them touch me. I shouldn't even be here, but my dad saw my friendship with Zim as a threat and called me defective."

Anger flared suddenly in the teen and -with no real control over himself- for the first time in years, Dib let himself get angry. He'd been angry when he'd fought the whole wrestling team, he thought muzzily, but he'd been in control then, part of him had known that he couldn't kill them or anything so extreme. That doing so would be wrong... but right now... killing all these people that were stopping him from seeing his Zim, his Irken... It didn't seem like that bad of an idea.

"I want to be with Zim," said Dib mournfully, eyes on the screen while his heart ached.

"Finally," crowed Dr Bedlam, standing up from his chair and pointing dramatically. "We have solid proof that the patient desires sexual contact with a man."

Dib looked over as far as he could to where the young doctor was stood, close enough for Dib to see he was the one working the shocking machine and sensors, so he had been the one that was making Dib feel like his nerves were burning out. The young Doctors hand came down on something Dib couldn't see, but the sudden surge of electricity through his body made him spasm and cry out in pain. He'd not been prepared for it and he'd not felt anything that strong before, Dib knew that if he took another jolt like that, he'd die on the table, his heart couldn't take another shock that strong without exploding.

Leaning heavily in his straps, Dib panted for a few minutes but his eyes flicked up to the screen again, and in his minds eyes, the green painted man suddenly had red glowing eyes, antenna that were flicked back relaxed and a long tongue.

"Zim," whimpered Dib.

"Stop that you filthy boy," snapped Dr Nicholson, his voice cutting deep into Dib and making him flinch. "If you keep crying for him we'll have no choice but to bring him as well, to make sure this Zim boy is not also sick in spirit as well as mind."

"You can't do something like that," dismissed Dib with another snort of laughter, stretching casually in his bonds. The sane part of him, locked near the back of his mind and feeling himself dying from embarrassment, marveled at how quickly he seemed to go from mournful longing to psychotic enjoyment.

"We can!" Insisted the younger doctor, moving to stand closer to Dib. "We can request that-"

"No no," interrupted Dib with a lazily smile, wiggling his fingers idly in the restraints. "What I mean is, you won't be able to touch my Zim."

"Why?" Sneered Dr Bedlam, clearly fed up with Dib and how badly he'd made him look a fool. "Because you said he's an alien? Is he going to fly off in his spaceship?"

"Oh no, he's in exile on Earth," answered Dib with a shrug, as he wiggled in the straps again. "What I mean is, you'll never get near him because I'll kill you all before that happens."

* * *

Note:

The 'threw' and 'through' issue, I'm starting to wonder if its an auto correct error? :/ I'm not the only one that uses the computer, but believe it or not I know the difference between the two words ;) I'll do my best to spot my mistakes. I'm trying.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen.**

* * *

_Leaning heavily in his straps, Dib panted for a few minutes but his eyes flicked up to the screen again, and in his minds eyes, the green painted man suddenly had red glowing eyes, antenna that were flicked back relaxed and a long tongue._

_"Zim," whimpered Dib._

_"Stop that you filthy boy," snapped Dr Nicholson, his voice cutting deep into Dib and making him flinch. "If you keep crying for him we'll have no choice but to bring him as well, to make sure this Zim boy is not also sick in spirit as well as mind."_

_"You can't do something like that," dismissed Dib with another snort of laughter, stretching casually in his bonds. The sane part of him, locked near the back of his mind and feeling himself dying from embarrassment, marvelled at how quickly he seemed to go from mournful longing to psychotic enjoyment._

_"We can!" Insisted the younger doctor, moving to stand closer to Dib. "We can request that-"_

_"No no," interrupted Dib with a lazily smile, wiggling his fingers idly in the restraints. "What I mean is, you won't be able to touch my Zim."_

_"Why?" Sneered Dr Bedlam, clearly fed up with Dib and how badly he'd made him look a fool. "Because you said he's an alien? Is he going to fly off in his spaceship?"_

_"Oh no, he's in exile on Earth," answered Dib with a shrug, as he wiggled in the straps again. "What I mean is, you'll never get near him because I'll kill you all before that happens."_

* * *

A tense silence followed that comment but it seemed these people were used to hearing nonsense from people they deemed 'crazy', there was already a few starting to laugh when Dib took a deep breath and pulled. The leather straps and the joints of the chair fought a momentary battle against each other, and it turned out that the leather straps weren't going to take it any longer, they snapped and released their victim.

Dib's head and right arm came free first, quickly followed by his waist and both legs, leaving him to pause only a moment to tug his left arm out of its restraints, before he was truly free of the chair. Since it took less than two minutes to do this, the doctors in the room where all still there, watching in wide-eyed and near silent shock as Dib pulled the wires and pads off of him, sensors and electrodes all came away the same time. He stood up and stretched just as the first of the large guards came barreling in, running straight towards Dib was the one armed with a needle, the other guard a step behind held a thick, polished truncheon.

"Oh, play time?" Giggled the black haired teen, wobbling slightly as he stood. Aside from his body throbbing with pain from the electricity, his head still felt very funny, like he was trying to think through treacle or something. Maybe this was how Gir felt all the time? Dib chuckled as the image of the little silver robot came to mind.

The guard with the stick arrived first and took a calculated swing at Dib while the one with the needle hung back, waiting to move in properly. The long teen smiled lazily and easily evaded the blow, swaying backwards to do it, before continuing his momentum to lean forwards and grab the stick on the back swing, stopping it dead in mid-air. Dib's large fingers gripped the stick halfway down its length, but the guard holding the handle tugged hard at it, ineffectually. His eyes went wide with fear as they slid to the side to look at the smiling Dib.

"My turn now?"

Despite his threat and the burning desire to kill them, Dib didn't.

That wasn't to say that he went easy on the doctors and staff that had stood around him, seeing him as filth that could be 'cured' by pain. He smashed a good number of feet and hands, a few knee caps on those that tried to fight back and **actually** landed a couple of hits on him. Distantly, he knew he'd be filled with guilt about what he'd done, but since that all seemed a while away yet, Dib didn't care. He saved his best for the 'caring' Dr Bedlam.

He'd knocked the young doctor to the ground with enough force to make the doctor's head spin, so when Dib eventually turned his attention to the good Doctor, he was only just starting to sit up. Dib smiled darkly as he squatted down in front of Dr Bedlam, arms stretched out but leaning his elbows on his knees and dangling the blood covered truncheon in his fingers, "hello Doc."

"What have you done, you psychopath?!" Demanded the Doctor more terrified than angry. Seeing nothing but blood and fallen bodies, he believed everyone was dead.

Dib turned to look at the mess in the room, his precognition letting him know that if he went up and touched any of them, he'd find them still alive and some of them were even still awake, choosing to stay still and pray he forgot about them. The drugs had started to run out of his system and he was still feeling dizzy, but he was starting to think straight again, albeit still with some difficultly.

Looking back at Dr Bedlam, the doctor seemed to see the guilt in Dibs amber eyes and he tried once again to talk to him. "Look, Mr Membrane, Dib, this was probably just because of that drug that Dr Nicholson ordered to use." The good looking doctor's voice shook slightly as he spoke, but Dib held his tongue a moment and let him speak. "I mean... y-you were doing so well on your treatment for Homosexuality, and n-now we know to treat you f-for violent outbursts too."

Dib lifted the truncheon up so the dull end rested on the Doctor's chest, pressing a bloody mark to the man's perfectly white lab coat. "If you capture a wild animal and hurt it, and keep hurting it, it may feign being tame. But a truly wild animal will never be tame. The first moment of weakness and it will attack." Dib's voice was calm and casual, like he was explaining to the man about how to get past a level on a video game.

"You hurt me. You tortured and drugged me because you believed I am gay." The same casual tone but Dib started to push gently at the doctor's chest with the truncheon. "I can't blame you too much, since it was my dad that threw me in here, you weren't to know that I'm a science project of the famous Professor Membrane. Genetic manipulation and enhancement, if I'm to guess. But it backfired when I didn't want to 'breed with the female of the project'. But can you blame me? It was my **little** **sister** he was referring to. Well, can you?"

Dr Bedlam was sitting there and -probably for the first time in his life- really listening to what he was being told. The doctor nodded, then panicked and shook his head, "no no. Your sister, no." He muttered, shaking with fear. Dib's hands were covered in blood and it had splattered over him in spurts, he looked like something out of a Night of the Living Dead movie.

"I'm glad," nodded Dib still serious, feeling the last of the drugs effects wearing off, right about the same time as the adrenaline in his body started to calm down, to be replaced with pain and tiredness. The teenager looked around again at the room then back at the doctor and smiled, "I think the worst thing you could have done was remove my self-control." He said with a chuckle as he removed the truncheon from the man's chest, watching him let out a sigh of relief before freezing up again as he looked at Dib.

"See, it comes back to Zim again." Explained Dib, shifting slightly as he spoke and lowering one knee to rest on the floor. "My life would have been quiet and dull without him but I'd have still ended up here eventually, when my dad told me to fuck my sister. But when Zim turned up, it was amazing. I had an enemy. An equal. Someone I could fight and would fight me back! Don't you see how great that is? The amount of times we nearly killed each other... I've lost count but nothing made me feel more alive than being with him."

"B-but he's your lover, right?" Asked the doctor, keeping his panic under control somehow.

"Lover?" Repeated Dib, blinking in confusion for a moment. "No, I said he's my enemy, that's much better than just being my lover. But I supposed it does sound a little crazy to say that," Dib chuckled to himself and continued. "Like I said, the worst thing you could have done was remove my self-control. Fighting Zim for years and having no one give a shit about me except my anti-social sister, it probably warped my sanity. Quite badly. But it **was there** still, held together by spit and willpower, while the world moved around me and ignored me."

Dib paused again and watched the doctor carefully, amber eyes seeming to be looking at his soul. "Then you hurt me. You tortured me. I didn't do anything to you, I didn't do anything to deserve being electrocuted **over** and **over** again. You could have killed me! You know, when Zim first landed on this planet, I called myself the Defender of Earth, doing my best to stop the Irken Invasion."

"And now?" Asked the doctor, starting to shake again as Dib's grip on the truncheon tighten.

"Now I just don't care any more." Sighed the black haired teen, looking over at the door to the room. "The guards are coming now. You activated the silent alarm while I was talking to you. Took you long enough, I was counting on it."

"What?!" Squeaked Dr Bedlam.

Dib looked back at him, his amber eyes filled with savage joy as he smiled, "because I've been itching to fight someone for days. I told you, I've spent years fighting Zim everyday of my life. Four days out of action and I'm starting to feel frustrated."

"Your a monster!" Shouted the doctor, loosing the last of his self-control. He even swung his first up and round, aiming for Dib's face, but the black haired teen batted it away with ease.

"I know," sighed Dib, looking around at the room and shrugging before looking back at the doctor. "And I'm a defective monster too, does that make it worse?"

The good looking doctor didn't get a chance to say anything else after that. Dib brought the truncheon up and around with speed, slamming into the side of the man's face and knocking him to the floor again. The man whimpered and cried pitifully as Dib reached down and lifted him back up again by his hair, leaning close enough to whisper in his ear, "I pulled the blow because I'm not going to hurt you any more. I'm going to leave you with the knowledge that all the **other** people in this room are alive and in pain because of **you."**

Dropping the man back to the floor, Dib stood up and stretched, trying to ease some of the pain in his muscles still, from his sudden ten minutes of activity. There had been quiet patches in his fighting with Zim, days where they wouldn't come away with bruises; but when the fighting started again, Dib would always feel sore afterwards. Just over worked muscles and abused nerves, he told himself as he headed to the door of the room, pausing as he spotted a water cooler and helped himself to several cups of plastic tasting water. The first real drink he'd had in days.

"Much better," he said, wiping his mouth on the shoulder of his t-shirt. The door burst open as he finished and Dib smiled again, a savage smile that only an Irken could probably appreciate. "Play time!"

* * *

Note;

I can already see the comments that Dib is acting a lot like the darker parts of Zim, but I think that almost everyone has that darker part of themselves. When you've been hurt for days, for no real reason, I think anyone would want a little pay back. Dib didn't kill anyone, but yes he did really hurt them. So yeah, I made Dib dispassionate and violent, its a story ^_^


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen.**

* * *

The explosion ripped through brick and concrete, scattering it to rubble and dust while the echo's of the explosion died away.

"Are you sure we're in the right part of the building?" Asked a female voice, her tone oozed anger and deep seated frustration. She was still concealed by the dust, as was the owner of the second voice that replied.

"The DNA tracker points to this side of the building," replied the other person in the dust cloud. That one sounded male, but the voice was slightly higher than expected and had a strange accent to the words. "Once inside, I can narrow down the range of the scanner and concentrate it inside the building."

"Whatever, just hurry up and find him Zim." Snapped the female voice, "I've got a bad feeling about how long he's been in here."

There was a reply in an alien tongue, a muttering that sounded like complaints that the owner was too wise to voice in English. Finally, the dust cleared enough to show a purple haired young woman wearing light weight, tight fitting, black battle armour but carrying no weapons. Next to her stood a thin young man with green skin and brilliant red eyes, two black antenna's sticking out from his head and claws for fingers. On his back was a metal backpack that currently had four spider-like legs sticking out of it, half tense while he examined a device in his hands. Oddly enough, his red striped top and black tight pants didn't seem as out of place as the battle armour on the female, or the metal legs coming out of his back.

"Okay, Dib-stink should be just down this corridor and in the large room at the end," instructed Zim and he looked up and pointed ahead of them.

"Is he alive?"

"I don't know Gaz," snapped Zim now, getting just as irritated. "The device wasn't designed for this job, the mighty Zim had to modify it just to do this much, have patients female hyuman!" The woman glared at Zim and she seemed to be thinking over her response, but after a few minutes she looked back threw the hole they'd just made.

"Why have no alarms gone off?" She asked, looking from side to side. They'd destroyed the entire side of this building, making a hole twenty meters wide and leaving the upper floors hanging open to the world, but there seemed to have been no effect on the buildings inhabitants.

"Good point," nodded Zim, "let us move quickly. We'll find out soon enough."

The green skinned alien led the way, glancing at his tracker occasionally as they moved into the corridor they had broken into, turning left and following it. The corridor looked like something from a horror movie. Everything was a mess, with things scrawled on the walls and the occasionally splatter of blood, but there seemed to be no bodies or people evident. Or noise.

"What the hell happened here?" Muttered Gaz in the quiet, feeling hyper alert as they moved past doors, some where open, some where closed but there was no telling what was inside most of the rooms beyond since half the lights had been smashed out.

The gloomy corridor continued down until it lead into a brighter looking room, it was larger and was mostly lit by many large windows around the upper portion of the room. It looked like it had once been the living area for the patients of Burton's Home for the Mentally Lost, since many of the doors hanging open, showed rooms with beds inside. This room also looked like it had been attacked by whatever had happened, and there were a few burly looking guards dressed in white laying unconscious in a pile in the corner.

What drew Gaz and Zim's attention was the sound of a T.V and the figure sat casually on the sofa watching it while eating a large sandwich and seemingly oblivious to the fact he was covered in splatters of blood.

"Dib!" The word burst from two throats and they both moved forwards just as the figure on the sofa reacted to them.

Dib grabbed the back of the sofa and kicked off of the floor to jump backwards, twisting gracefully and landing in a crouch with his sandwich still in his other hand, amber eyes watching them carefully, with no glasses anywhere to be seen. "What do you want?" Frowned Dib his words laced with venom, taking another step back as Zim took a step forwards. "I was busy."

"We're here to get you out, fat head!" Answered Gaz, her tone just as dangerous as her brothers. "What the hell happened here?"

"Oh this?" Asked Dib, gesturing to the mess and unconscious guards with a nasty smirk. "I got fed up of the way they'd been treating me, so I decided that since no one was coming to help me, I'd better fight back."

Gaz saw Zim flinch at those words and gritted her teeth hard. While she didn't care any more for the alien than she had to, she cared enough because -in his own way- Zim cared about her and her brother. And it wasn't like anyone else did, she thought bitterly.

"Don't you dare talk like that," she shouted now, marching towards the teen, surprised when he continued to dance away from her, stepping over the randomly littered mess with ease while nibbling his sandwich. "Zim had no idea what happened to us, he thought you'd gone back on your deal. He spent the whole weekend locked in his base trying to work it out by himself, since there was no one at the house."

Dib just continued to watch her while eating his sandwich, Gaz curled her hands into fists but tried to temper her anger.

"And since you didn't ask, I was dragged off to dad's lab so he could get a proper 'examination' of me." Dib paused in his eating as he caught the undertones in that statement, frowning. Gaz felt something in her ease off now, Dib couldn't be that damaged if he still cared for her enough to worry. "He would never do anything sexual towards me, but I was still stripped and examined. He took samples and did tests. It took me three days to break out and make it to Zim's base for shelter."

"Your sister told me everything that had happened," said Zim now, continuing the story from where he was still stood on the other side of the room, his spider legs tucked away in his PAK again, along with the tracking device. He was stood there with his back straight and his manner that of an emperor, an imposing figure that was only an inch shorter than Gaz. But in his eyes, Dib could see something else, something that wasn't befitting the proud Invader he appeared to be on the outside.

"She allowed me to preform a simple blood test to confirm her story before telling me what had happened to you. Once she was ready, we came for you."

Dib watched them both and they saw that he looked calm and composed but at the same time there was something almost feral about him, savage. It wasn't that he'd not been allowed to bath for nearly a week, and it may have had something to do with all the blood on his clothes. He was paler than normal and thinner too, but Dib finished his sandwich before he spoke.

"What did you do to the Professor, Gaz?" Asked Dib at last, his eyes moving away from Zim to his sister.

"Nothing." Replied Gaz, feigning disinterest and looking away a moment, before looking back and smiling. "Yet."

Dib smiled and Zim felt something inside him tighten as he saw that look on Dib's face. He'd glimpsed it when the human had been fighting nearly a week ago now, but now there was no mask to hide it, no pretense of control. "Good. I owe him for what he did to my little sister," nodded Dib, straightening up and looking at the room around them, restless. "Then I owe him for putting me in here."

"It looks like a pretty messed up place." Commented Gaz, "the Crazy house for Boys wasn't anything like this."

"That's because that place was for children, not sex offenders." Sneered Dib with contempt thick in his tone. Who it was directed at, the others weren't sure since Dib continued to look around the room. "I took out most of the guards and flipped the deactivation switch on all the locks. The only patient's I left in place, were the ones that liked to hurt children... I think some of the women took those guys out..."

Gaz and Zim shared a worried look, **now** this wasn't the Dib that had been thrown in here a week ago. He was still in there somewhere, but... would they ever get him back?

"They tortured me," said Dib at last, looking down at his bare feet and blood covered hands. "They kept saying they were going to cure me of being a homosexual, and to do it, they used electric shocks. Powerful electric shocks in different parts of my body while showing me different images on a screen." Dib paused as he swallowed hard, hearing Gaz gasp in the silence of the room. He looked up at them both as he continued, tears evident in his eyes but they didn't fall as he spoke, "so I... hurt them in return. I didn't kill anyone... but I used my strength and speed to hurt them, very much... It was so easy..."

Dib crumpled then, whatever had been holding him up and keeping him going until then, had finally cut off. Zim's metal spider legs were out and he was moving to catch the human, even as Dib's eyes were rolling back into his skull and his knee's were starting to give. He caught Dib awkwardly due to the size difference and had the wind knocked out of him, but Dib was safe in his arms.

"I think we should take him back to the base, not the lab though," said Zim sounding a little winded, as Gaz stepped up to take one of her brothers arms and loop it over her shoulder, to help take his weight. The Irken got up and took the other side of the taller youth, neither of them said anything else now as they started to leave the building, heading out the hole they had made. They saw no one still as they left, and no one tried to stop them.

* * *

A little anticlimactic, I'm sorry. But look, Dib is free :D And back with Zim.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen.**

* * *

Dib shot up in bed as his eyes flew open, panting hard and looking around him in panic as the nightmare receded back into his subconscious. Trying to remember it now, he couldn't recall what had happened, but he remembered the pain and as his breathing calmed, he could feel the ghosts of that pain in his nerves.

Blinking now, Dib looked around as it dawned on him that he was in a comfortable bed, one that even had blankets on it since the one at the Home hadn't. It was a normal looking room too, it had a window that showed the pre-dawn world outside, the first rays of the sun starting to tease at the darkened sky.

Where was he? Was he safe?

Looking at the room more carefully, a smirk pulled at his lips as Dib spotted that it was decorated in dark pinks, bright purples and deep reds. All the hallmarks of Irken home decorating, thought Dib as he shifted in the bed, remembering that Zim had been there with Gaz, so they must be at Zim's house. Frowning as something felt strange, Dib shifted again and looked down at himself, lifting the sheets even to confirm it. He was completely naked. The dirty clothes were gone and the blood had been cleaned off of his hands, feet and face.

But he was still completely naked.

Thankfully, someone had left him a pile of fresh new clothes on a chair by the bed. Turning in the bed, Dib reached out for the underwear that was on top of the pile and grabbed it, slipping it on while he was still under the sheets. Once minimally covered, Dib got up and inspected the clothes left for him, nodding with approval at the choices; black jeans -not too tight or loose enough to fall off- with one of his better liked blue tops, and a long black trench coat folded up at the bottom of the pile, with some socks. There were his boots on the floor under the chair too.

Lifting the top up, Dib made to put it on but then got a whiff of himself and pulled a face. The clothes were gone and so was the blood, but he really really needed a shower first. Gathering the jeans and t-shirt together, Dib moved to the door and pulled it open, it opened onto a basic hallway with three other doors on it and the stairs at the other end. Glancing at the doors, Dib didn't even need to concentrate on his precognition -about what would happen if he opened each door- any more to know that the from the stairs back it was Gir's room, Gaz's room, his and lastly Zim's.

Zim had a room? Thought Dib curiously as he left and headed for the stairs. Oh yeah, he slept now that he didn't need his PAK to actually survive. I came here that morning when I had that... weird dream. Dib had padded downstairs to the kitchen, ridden the elevator down to the lab and only now remembered that his brain had been mocking him with heated dreams of Irken flesh beneath his fingers before everything had gone wrong. And **now** he was wandering around the aliens base in his underwear.

Shaking his head as he blushed, Dib continued to the shower room that he'd used before, dropping the clothes on the same bench as before and wiggling out of his underwear before stepping into the shower stall. Flicking the shower on, the goo came out warm to start with and Dib smiled as he turned the temperature up, increasing the flow until it felt like standing under a normal shower. Sighing with contentment, Dib started to wash his hair and tried to clear his mind of all thought, focusing only on getting clean. He didn't want to picture Irken claws moving threw his hair as he washed it three times to make sure it felt clean. He didn't try to imagine Zim's hands moving over his skin as he reached for the body wash. And when he looked down to see that he was nearly standing to full attention, Dib sighed.

So much for that plan, he thought while a familiar little voice at the back of his mind surfaced once more.

It would be so much easier to go and confront Zim with his problem, it said in a voice as smooth as black velvet. Let the Irken that haunted his fantasies, sort out the problems he caused.

That's just ridiculous, Dib snapped at his own mind while his hand wandered down his front, the memory of that smoldering look Zim had given him, right after he'd beaten the wrestling team to a bloody pulp, was hovering in his minds eye. He groaned in a low tone as his fingers wrapped around his length and slowly started to pump away, getting faster with every other stroke.

He's just a skinny alien idiot, Dib thought while pleasure rippled threw his body. Who know's if he even has any understanding of love or having sex?

Really? Purred that dark voice again, this time it pulled up the memory of that morning in the kitchen, right after he'd had the first dream about Zim. The memory of his finger on Zim's lips to stop him talking about himself as a defective, and when Zim had opened his lips and lightly bit at Dib's finger, moments before his tongue had come out to play.

Dib felt his knee's suddenly weaken as he remembered that tongue, the way it had flicked and curled... "Z-Zim!" He grunted as he screwed his eyes shut, giving a few last hard tugs before he came and his spluttered his essence onto the wall of Zim's shower. Panting hard with his eyes closed still, Dib stood there under the hot goo-shower for a few minutes, one hand braced on the wall and completely unable to remember when he'd reached out to support himself.

Taking a deep breath and moving at last, Dib opened his eyes and looked around himself, at least he was alone still, not ever Gir was stood there watching him again. Working quickly, Dib cupped his hands and gathered enough goo to clean the wall of the shower before finishing off washing his body with the soap for a second time.

Climbing out and toweling off, Dib felt better than he had for weeks. Once dressed, Dib returned to the kitchen and was stepping out of the elevator just as Zim was wandering into the kitchen, yawning and wearing the same loose vest and trousers. The first thing his ruby eyes saw was Dib, looking just the way he always used to -blue t-shirt, black jeans but no socks- except that he was smiling at the Irken.

"Dib-thing," blinked Zim, straightening up as the black haired teen folded his arms. "You were in my lab?"

"I had a shower." Shrugged Dib, his amber eyes following Zim as the alien moved to a cupboard and pulled out a soda. "I needed one and knew there was one down in the base. It worked great too, I don't think just water would have gotten me feeling clean enough."

Zim nodded and popped the soda can as he stepped to the kitchen table and sat down, drinking deeply before he replied. "After Gaz came here, I offered to shelter both of you until you felt ready to find new homes. Gaz wasn't keen on the idea, Zim thinks, but she is too wary of going back to your old home, in case the Professor is there." Zim paused as he took another drink, his eyes never leaving Dib as he tried to get a measure of this new version. "So, until you decide otherwise, this is your home and I've remodeled it accordingly. There is a bathroom connecting both yours and Gaz's room, I have my own facilities already connected to my room."

"I didn't see a door on the landing."

"No, it's in the bedroom but seeing as the sun has only been up half an hour, I suspect you missed it in the morning gloom," shrugged the Irken before he finished the drink and tossed the empty can in the waste bin. He returned his attention to Dib and watched him carefully for a few moments. "You are different than before, but do you still feel able to cooperate with Zim?"

Dib held still and silent for a few moments longer, until at last he shifted, one hand coming up to rub at the back of his neck while the other slipped into his jeans pocket. "It's going to be a while before I feel like I'll be able to relax properly." Admitted the teen, amber eyes never leaving the ruby orbs watching him. "As well as being electrocuted for over an hour, three times a day, I also worked on learning how to use my new abilities. Its just gonna take a few days to get used to being 'outside' with them."

"New abilities?" The antenna on Zim's head betrayed his sudden curiosity as they shot forwards.

"Yes, Gaz must have mentioned." Smiled Dib cockily, glad he was able to surprise the Irken. He took a step closer to the table, intending to sit down but he stopped himself and continued to stand, choosing to lean against the kitchen counters opposite Zim instead. Folding his arms over his chest Dib continued to smile at Zim, looking darkly sexy and making the Irken's mouth go dry.

"She told me that you were both from a project of the Professor's that lost funding near the end stages of its development." Explained Zim, his hands resting idly on the tabletop while he spoke, trying not to fidget. "You two had been produced and before he could work out anything else, he was told to destroy you both and move into something else. He didn't. Instead he took you home and called you his children."

Zim watched as emotions flickered across Dib's face and he doubted even Gaz would have been able to work out all of them, it ended with the black haired teen glaring out the window while the muscles in his jaw worked. After a moment, Dib managed to growl out, "I suppose that was what was left of his humanity speaking up then. I should be grateful but I wonder if it would have been easier if he'd just killed me."

"No!" Snapped the Irken, slamming his hands on the table top and getting to his feet quick enough to knock his chair over and make Dib take a few hurried steps away from him, his back to the window while he watched Zim, silently confused. "You can't say such a thing," said Zim again, unable to look at Dib and focusing his attention on his claws. "Without you, Zim would have nothing. Zim would **be** nothing. Just another failed Invader too blinded by pride to see the truth."

"But you'd have taken over Earth in the first year you were here, hell probably the first six months" pointed out Dib with a lazily smile but still on the other side of the kitchen. "I wouldn't have gotten in your way and you would have been considered a successful Invader."

"No." Disagreed Zim flatly, looking up at Dib now. "I am in exile. Even if I succeeded in my so called 'mission', I would have been shot for leaving my exile. They lied and called it a mission because I would not listen to them otherwise, but exile is exile."

"Those assholes," hissed Dib angrily, his hands balling into fists for a moment before something occurred to him and he chuckled darkly, making Zim swallow hard even as the faded pain from his exile, stung once more at his chest. "I just remembered something the Professor said to me, and its kind of made things a lot clearer for me I think."

Zim raised a non-existent eyebrow in confusion as Dib stepped closer, moving around the table so he was stood in front of him. Dib reached up and carefully cupped Zim's cheek with one hand and tilting his head to look up at him, while Dib smiled softly and murmured quietly, "I am also a defective."

* * *

Annnnd I'm dropping it there ^_^ Next chapter in a few days, as usual :3 Btw, thankee for the reviews all! Nothing makes me want to write more than feeding my ego ;)


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen.**

* * *

Zim raised a non-existent eyebrow in confusion as Dib stepped closer, moving around the table so he was stood in front of Zim. Dib reached up and carefully cupped Zim's cheek with one hand while he smiled softly and murmured quietly, "I am also a defective. So I don't care any more, not about Earth, not about Humans. None of it. I'm just gonna do what I want, when I want to."

A blue blush was flooding the Irken's cheeks as Dib spoke, leaning closer until they would have been nose to nose. Dib could feel the faint tremor that ran through Zim's body as he spoke those words and he smiled, "and now, my most beloved enemy, I want only one thing and I've wanted it for a while now. I want..." Dib trailed off as Zim's breath caught in his throat, squeedlyspooch almost audibly thrumming with excitement.

"I want breakfast." Dib finished and brushed a thumb over Zim's flushed cheek before he winked and let go, stepping away and over to the cupboards with fluid grace. Opening them up at random to see what was in them, Dib continued to speak while he had his back to Zim, giving the Irken time to cover his embarrassment. It also gave Zim time to lash out, to show Dib that he wasn't affected by the closeness of moments ago but there was no attack.

"I couldn't eat while I was in that place, because they were lacing my food with something," explained Dib as he moved. "I tasted it when I tried a little bit of the porridge they first gave me, tasted it right off. I think I should thank you for all those times you tried to drug me. It really helped build up my resistances to such things."

"You didn't eat or drink for four days?" Asked Zim, his curiosity about Dib was too great for him to sulk and **not** ask. He'd just have to get revenge on the hyuman somehow.

"Basically," shrugged Dib, reaching for a box and pulling it down, showing it to the Irken. "Hey, what does this stuff taste like?"

"Blueberry Muffins," answered Zim tiredly, looking at the familiar box. "I hate it but occasionally I get the idea that I don't."

"Are we trying for a double meaning there, Zim?" Flirted Dib, with a smirk as he turned around to look at the sulking alien.

"I've always hated you Dib," replied Zim with a wicked, zippered smile as he folded his arms over his flat chest. The challenge of a fight, verbal of physical, always brightened him up, especially with Dib. "And there are too many reasons for me to forget why, Irkens don't forgive."

"Good, since I got thrown in that place because of you," teased Dib, opening the box and reaching for a plate out of the cupboard. He looked at the confused frown on on the Irken's face and Dib couldn't help himself, as he turned back around with what looked like balls of cake on his plate. "Did Gaz not tell you that part?"

"She said you tried to leave the house, when the then Professor said they would clone another 'mate' for Gaz, and he said to lock you up instead of destroying you." Answered Zim, still looking unsure now as he stood there, seeming almost vulnerable since he was dressed in the same vest and loose shorts Dib had seen the week before, not his invaders uniform or the Earth clothes that looked so similar. "She mentioned nothing else, why?"

"Seems old Daddy thought I was 'forming a permanent emotional bond' with you," explained Dib while nibbling on one of the cake balls. "He was annoyed that I didn't want to fuck Gaz and was preferring to spend all my time with you. He chose to believe that there was something wrong with me instead and that place was supposed to stop me being gay."

"Are you gay?" Asked Zim, seeming to be struggling with keeping up.

Dib popped the whole cake ball in his mouth and chewed carefully before swallowing and answering the innocently asked question. "I know you've been here long enough to know what that means," said Dib calmly, watching Zim carefully as he spoke. "And I guess in answer to that, I've never stopped long enough to watch humans properly and think about them in that context. The answer could be, I don't know. What about Irkens, what is it like for you?"

Zim folded his arms over his chest again and tilted his head to the side in thought, his antenna twitching as he did. "I was born from a tube, cloned in a large batch and given life by the attachment of my PAK. All knowledge is stored in the PAK so we don't have to go through Skool to learn things, only training camp so our bodies are ready for service to Irk. The subject of feelings doesn't come up very often and the topic of mating or mates, never comes up at all."

"Is that down to the codes embedded in the PAK's?" Asked Dib, eating the last of the cake balls and seeming to enjoy them immensely. Zim made a mental note to make more of them with the replicator, even if he personally hated them.

"I've also never had cause to think about such things, mates and mating," replied Zim idly, turning towards the kitchen doorway, his antenna going flat on his skull. He looked over his shoulder before heading out the kitchen though and said, "maybe now I've broken the programming, and with suitable cause, I too could properly discover my own desires."

On those words, Zim walked out of the kitchen and headed for the stairs back to his room without another backward glance. Dib sighed and put the plate on the side by the sink, "I'm not even going to ask how you got down here without either of us noticing, but I can guess you've been there long enough."

"Long enough to know you two need to just get it on," said Gaz with a nasty smirk. She was stood in the corner of the room, just besides the elevator to the lab underneath and Dib really did have no idea when she'd arrived or how. His precognition hadn't picked up her arrival. "So, how long have you had a thing for alien cock?"

"Piss of Gaz," sighed Dib, stepping over to the elevator himself and moving inside. He was thankful that his sister only chuckled darkly at him and left it at that as she moved past the elevator entrance and headed to get herself something to eat, while he disappeared from sight.

With little else to occupy his mind, Dib decided to throw himself into the designs he'd come up with for the nano-bots while he'd been locked away. He'd draw them out then scan them into the computer, enhancing the designs and adding details as he went, he thought while stepping off the platform and over to the large computer screen. A slight shiver reminded him that he'd left his socks and boots upstairs, and the floor of the large lab was cold, but he didn't care too much since his mind was alive with ideas and designs.

* * *

Zim found Dib nearly an hour later, typing away at speed on the computer and occasionally looking from a piece of paper covered in scribbled notes, to the over large screen before him. The Irken was impressed and he paused a few steps away from the screen to move his eyes over the details, reading the codes that Dib was now programming in for the first set of trial runs. Indeed, it was impressive, the programming and design were alien enough for Zim to have never even considered such a concept, but it was the reason that he'd thought to ask Dib in the first place. Despite breaking his PAK programming, he was still Irken in origin and change was hard for his species.

Stepping closer, eyes still on the screen, Zim rested his hands on the back of the command chair just as he was opening his mouth to speak, but instead he found himself instinctively ducking a punch. Dib was stood, wild-eyed and tense for a few moments but his eyes were glaring unseeing. It only took moments for the wild-eyed look to pass and a flicker of guilt to appear. The Irken blinked then smiled nastily, "it is far too early for such combat practise Dib-stink, but if its a fight you want...?"

Zim had ducked to avoid the punch and now turned it to his advantage by balling up his fists and bringing one around to land in Dib's stomach, except it didn't connect. Already the human youth was twisting to the side and bringing his other fist round, aiming for the side of Zim's head.

Moving aside and reaching up to grab the arm, Zim blinked in surprise to see that Dib was already countering the grab, forcing Zim to change his attack and go for a slash up the teens arm before moving away. Dib closed the distance with two quick steps and Zim cursed as he saw that the human was fighting with his eyes closed! He thought it was an insult, a way to mock the mighty Irken, but as they continued to lash out and dodge each other, Zim started to study the teens moves and reactions.

Slash. Jab. Grip and twist. Kick. Flip. Jab. Jab.

"I've worked it out!" Announced Zim at last with delight, as his metal limbs came out suddenly to distract Dib while Zim grabbed at his wrists with his claws. It had taken some effort but Zim had managed to maneuver the black haired teen till his back was to a wall, so with one shove, he had Dib pinned with his arms above his head. Amber eyes flew open and glared down at the figure holding him, Zim had seen many different emotions in those eyes, even fear, but now there was something else. It was like fear, but worse, it was the kind of fear that made someone fight long past the time they should have given in. It was feral and insane but that didn't make it any less deadly or real. Zim quickly eased his grip of Dib's wrists and instead gently glided his hands down to rest on the taller boy's shoulders, enjoying that Dib couldn't stop a shiver rippling through his frame.

"Gaz has a multitude of abilities that effect the world around her, making her deadly," said Zim smugly, as they both remained standing close together, contained in a cage of Zim's metal spider-like legs from his PAK. "But you have precognition, you see bits of the future before it happens."

"It only started to happen in the last few weeks," confirmed Dib, calming down now that he was no longer pinned, but he was still leaning against the wall and seemed in no hurry to move. "It was subconscious for the most part; instinct and intuition. But I think it got... accelerated, when they started hurting me. I was soon able to anticipate the next time I was going to get zapped, so I could brace myself. Help it hurt less."

Zim looked up into those dispassionate amber eyes and realized that while they still held fire, it was the fire's of anger and pain, not the passionate flame that had driven Dib to protect the world he had loved. That world had rejected him over and over, but he'd hung on to that fire and passion, continued to fight for it and not cared about its hate. Until that world had turned on him and hurt him once too often. So much alike...

Dib blinked and shifted in Zim's grip, his arms still above his head even if they were no longer being held there. "Either way, my abilities are still very new and very much at the training stage," said Dib in a more business like tone despite the playful little smirk. "So unless you have another reason to keep my pinned to this wall..."

The sentence trailed off and Zim felt something inside him tighten suddenly as his antenna shot upright in surprise. Hating being embarrassed but seeing no way out of the situation without shouting his head off -and he was wise enough to know that would be no help right now- Zim lifted his hands off of Dib's shoulders and stepped away as he retracted his spider legs. For a moment, he thought Dib looked a little let down by this action but as Zim went to look again, the human was already nonchalantly brushing past him.

Dib returned to the chair in front of the computer and sat down, his fingers moving to save the work he had done already, before pulling up his earlier work to show Zim. As the Irken stepped up besides him, his red eye locked on the screen and speed reading the code, Dib shifted again and looked at Zim.

"Could you..." he said, then stopped himself. After a few moments of trying to focus on the screen, Dib realized he was really having trouble focusing on the work. "Could you... just move a little forwards, just so I can see you properly and not the corner of my eye or something?" He felt himself flush with shame at seeming so weak.

"If I must," shrugged the green alien with a sigh, but he looked down at Dib and not at the screen. "Will you always be so... tetchy?"

"Tetchy?!" Snapped Dib flinching even as he repeated the word.

"Yes, tetchy." Repeated Zim again, turning his back on the screen and sitting on the computer terminal now, ruby eyes focused on Dib while he folded his arms over his thin chest. "I only walked up behind you, and while the mighty Zim is indeed your enemy and rival, you lost control of yourself and lashed out. Will Zim have to watch himself every time he walks past you? Should I warn Gaz?"

"I said it would take a while before I felt able to properly relax," growled Dib in a low tone, glaring sullenly at the keyboard in front of him. The comment about Gaz had hurt more than he had thought it would, the thought of lashing out at Gaz for no reason at all... made him feel ill again.

"That is little reassurance if-" Began Zim but Dib was on his feet now, grabbing Zim by the front of his Irken uniform and they were nearly nose to non-existent nose as the Human glared at the Irken.

"What do you want from me Zim?" He asked a little too loudly, making Zim wince from the volume. Part of Dib seemed to notice, since the rest of his words came out a more tolerable volume but with no less desperation. "I had my entire world destroyed in the space of one afternoon! I don't mean my planet, I mean my life. You know how that felt, out of everyone on this shitty planet, you are the only one that know's how that feels! I lost everything I thought I had."

"I do." Replied Zim quietly, frozen in place with his arms bracing himself against the control terminal while Dib leaned in close.

"Then after that they throw me in a lunatic asylum as a favour! It would have been better if they'd just tried to kill me," whimpered Dib, his hands starting to shake. "Killing me meant that it would have been over, my miserable excuse for a life would have ended and there would have been no more pain, no more loneliness... But I was kept alive, and they hurt me instead, under the label of 'fixing' me."

Zim kept his mouth shut as Dib had spoken, remembering when he'd locked himself away from the world and tried to work out what to do with his life. It had been Dib visiting everyday and shouting outside his base, that had been what quickly pulled Zim out of the downward spiral he'd been sinking into. Who knows how far he would have fallen if not for that? What idea's he might have gotten into his head about stopping the pain.

And now, he had to try and do the same for Dib, without having any clue how to.

"Dib." Said Zim quietly as the human fell silent, the shaking in his body growing as his eyes started to fill with tears. "Dib. You are stronger than this. You can-"

"No, I'm not and no, whatever your saying, I can't!" Snapped Dib, trying to blink away his tears and hoping Zim hadn't seen them. "What the hell have I got left to do?!"

There was silence again as Zim just looked at the human, completely at a loss on how to comfort him. Then part of him responded. It was fed up of worrying about Dib, it had done nothing but worry for nearly a week now and it wanted to make things even. And Dib probably needed Zim to be acting his normal self anyway, like the human had when Zim had gone threw his own dark time of loss.

"How the hell should I know?" Snapped Zim cruelly, smiling nastily as Dib's eyes widened in shock. "If you don't think there's anything worth living for, then go and hang yourself Dib. Take one of my guns and blow your disgusting monkey brains out of your over large head, because I've never heard you whine so much in the entire time mighty Zim as been aware of you. And you were a damned whiny brat at Skool!"

Dib leaned up suddenly, his grip on Zim's top loosening as the shock of the Irken's tone and words seemed to cut through whatever pain had been filling his mind. As he took a half step backwards from Zim, the alien now pressed his advantage, closing the gap quickly as be pressed on while waving his arms to help emphasis his point.

"So what if your not human? Neither am I! I was expected to die in the vast depths of space, not land on a planet and live. But I lived. Even when my world -and everything I'd ever believed in- ended for me, I live still. My race doesn't want me, I'm nothing but an embarrassment to them!" Zim leaned in closer as he spoke quickly, subtly using his metal legs to raise him up to the same height as Dib, making sure he could glare properly, ruby into amber. "But after loosing all that, I had to find a new purpose. I have. After I've sent the entire Irken Empire into disarray, I plan on exploring the star's properly, in my own way. Not as an Invader or an Irken. I just want to see what is out there for myself, learn of new things and new places..." Zim trailed off then, panting slightly from the effort of not shouting but making sure his words got through the Human's massive thick head. Now he eased off slightly, pulling away and giving Dib some space as his voice softened, "would it be so bad to come with me?"

* * *

Tense. :O

Also, missed you Cookies, ^_^ glad to have you back ;P


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty.**

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_"So what if your not human? Neither am I! I was expected to die in the vast depths of space, not land on a planet and live. But I lived. Even when my world -and everything I'd ever believed in- ended for me, I live still. My race doesn't want me, I'm nothing but an embarrassment to them!" Zim leaned in closer as he spoke quickly, subtly using his metal legs to raise him up to the same height as Dib, making sure he could glare properly, ruby into amber. "But after loosing all that, I had to find a new purpose. I have. After I've sent the entire Irken Empire into disarray, I plan on exploring the star's properly, in my own way. Not as an Invader or an Irken. I just want to see what is out there for myself, learn of new things and new places..." Zim trailed off then, panting slightly from the effort of not shouting but making sure his words got through the Human's massive thick head. Now he eased off slightly, pulling away and giving Dib some space as his voice softened, "would it be so bad to come with me?"_

Dib blinked as the words sank in, hard. He looked from the alien in front of him, up to the massive computer screen that still now held the plans, blueprints and codes for the nano-bots he'd been designing for the Irken. Why should he not just fly off into space with Zim? What was left for him here? Why not follow Zim?

Because they were enemies? No, they were more than just enemies. Out of everyone on this planet, it was Zim that he trusted the most, followed closely by Gaz -depending on what mood she was in. After that, he didn't care. He knew that he didn't want the planet to be destroyed or anything so drastic, but he didn't want to do anything to help it any more. He just didn't care enough.

So, if he and Zim weren't enemies any more, purred that familiar dark voice in the back of his mind, what did that make them? Did Zim see things the same way?

"I'll help you finish this plan," said Dib at last, indicating the screen and secretly glad this his words came out sounding level and calm, not choked with tears or emotion. "I want to trash things for the Irken Empire as much as you do."

Zim nodded in understanding, lowering himself back to the floor and retracting his metal limbs as he listened in silence for once. Waiting.

"After that..." Began Dib, seemingly unable to meet Zim's eyes for a moment.

"After that, if we've not killed each other and you still want me around, then yes. I'd like to come with you." Zim blinked in surprise at that before a simple pure smile slowly appeared on his face; looking lost at how fragile and open it was, compared to the aliens normally loud or hostile behavior. "But, you've got to be able to put up with everything about me," continued Dib, closing the small distance between them both again until they were almost chest to chest once more. "And by everything, I mean the fact that... I think I love you... my most precious and beloved enemy."

Zim had time to blink again in surprise before Dib's lips descended and gently brushed against his own, in a chaste kiss. It was quick and shy, but since he had only pulled back slightly and hadn't been killed on the spot, Dib moved in again for a slightly longer kiss, giving the Irken time to respond now. No metal legs stabbed into him, no claws ripped at his face or body, and nothing shot him. It made Dib feel a little more confident now, especially since Zim rested his hands on Dib's chest and started to kiss back.

It had started out gently and hesitantly, but as Zim started to respond, the kiss deepened and tongues reached out to brush against each other, battling and dancing as hands reached out to grip tightly to the other. An Irken claw reached up the back of his neck to bury itself in his hair, reminding the Human that he needed it cut, until Zim started to tug on it and made tingles ripple up Dib's back. So in return, Dib reached up and gently started to stroke a finger down Zim's antenna, making the alien in his arms jump in surprise before he moaned into him, pressing himself closer.

Breaking the kiss at last, panting and looking at each other, Dib seemed to recover first and he smiled gently down at Zim, enjoying the difference in height now more than ever. "Shall I take it that you like me in return, or do you just want some fun?" He teased, winking as the Irken's face flushed deeply.

"Shut your mouth hole Dib-filth," snapped Zim as he looked away now, embarrassed and seeming confused but he didn't push himself out of Dib's arms. The human only smirked and continued to watch the Irken's face, waiting. Until at last Zim looked up at him again, still frowning in annoyance, "you are my enemy. You are my friend. You have become my reason for continuing on in this shitty life. If you only ask that I love you as well... it doesn't seem much of a change to me, really."

"Except as well as kicking your ass, I'll get to play with it later," chuckled Dib, giving the smaller figure a feral looking smile. Zim tilted his head to the side in silent question, which made Dib chuckle again. "Oh don't you think that I want to stop fighting with you. We just won't aim to kill each other. Broken bones aren't good but accidents can happen and they can be healed quickly enough, I'm sure. But I'm calling it off before it starts, if you don't want to fight me still."

Zim let out a low dark laugh as he reached up to caress Dib's cheek, his expression as darkly sexy as Dib had imagined it in his dreams. "I think it sounds perfect, Dib."

"Good," nodded the human, leaning into the caress slightly. "But for now, we need to get this design finished. Since we now live together, there will be plenty of time to get to know each other **better."**

"I'm planning on it," shrugged the Irken tartly as they slowly let go of each other. An idea struck him and he snickered, "and it'll be more interesting for you, since I've had to sit through all those disgusting video's at Hi Skool about human breeding."

"Trust me Zim, those video's were a torture even I hated," sighed the human reaching out for the controls on the computer terminal. Before they both started to review the progress made by Dib, the human paused and looked at the Irken in the chair next to him, "question. Would that invite be open to Gaz, if she wanted to come out to space with us?"

"So long as she promises to a few rules before we head out, yeah," nodded Zim, leaning back and folding his arms. "Zim doesn't want to put up with you two fighting while we're in the middle of space. Or risk her putting a hole in the ship or me, when she's a bad mood."

"Understood." Agreed Dib with a smirk, "I'll ask her at some point."

"I'm sure she'll sound thrilled," replied Zim dryly.

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^_^ Lookie! They a couple now!


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty-One.**

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**_[Fourteen Months Later...]_**

"The nano-bots have been distributed through ninety-nine point eight percent of the Irken population, four point eight percent above the target number. No one detected the replicaters embedded into the food dispensers, during routine examinations. Everything is ready."

Zim looked up from the screen before him, reading the figures and stat's off and hearing his voice echo slightly in the metal of the ship's bridge. He looked over at his companions on the bridge, Gaz at the helm and Dib on weapons; the Irken had quickly learnt that they proved a formidable pair when working in sync. Whether it had been part of there 'design' or just good instincts, their abilities complimented each other well for fighting against others.

"Perfect," replied Dib, his station only a stretch away from from Zim's, there eyes met.

"We're far enough away from Earth that anyone who even works out where the nano-bots originated from, won't be able to find us or any trace of the technology on the planet, should they go looking." Informed Gaz archly from her place at the helm, her eyes currently fixed on the navigation panel next to her. "We're on the edge of Irken space and the design of the ship or its signal beacon isn't raising any interest."

"Different enough but similar enough to look like a trading partner or free lancer," commented Dib as he leaned back in his chair, lifting his arms over his head and stretching. Zim watched him hungrily and only smiled as Dib caught him watching, and winked.

Zim had abandoned his Irken uniform but kept the material it was made from; it was light weight, strong and extremely durable in all environments. He'd made them all several sets of clothes out of it and even a uniform for them all to wear, if they had to look official. Since they were about to bring down the Irken Empire, they were all dressed in the simple, form fitting uniforms; Dib's was the blue of his favourite t-shirt as a kid, Zim's was the same red as his eyes, and Gaz had chosen black, making the purple of her hair more vivid looking. The uniforms being simple body suits, accessorized with armored gauntlets and shin guards etc.

"We are concealed enough that we can venture into the edges of the Empire without raising any red flags at this time," said Zim, looking up at Gaz as he spoke. She nodded and started to pressed buttons before taking the controls in both hands, "we are in range now to set things off, but it'll be another two or three day's before we notice any real change from the outside."

Dib smiled and closed his eyes, his brow creased slightly in concentration but after a few minutes he opened them and grinned wickedly. "We'll pick up an Empire wide communication exactly thirty-nine hours after we activate the nano-bots." He announced confidently, smiling smugly "we'll have to make sure we're in orbit above the nearest planet when we do, or we'll be out of range."

Dib's ability of precognition was still very limited in that he couldn't predict the future, but when there was a large chain of events about to be set into motion, he could follow the events into the future and read the most likely or highly probable outcomes. Everything was subject to change, nothing was certain and one impulsive action can change everything. But being right nine times out of ten, the scythe haired human was becoming reliable in his predictions.

"Mastha! Wait for Gir!" The small silver robot came running in, tripped over nothing and fell flat on his face before getting up and running frantically again. The small silver robot hadn't changed much except he seemed to have attached himself to Gaz more than Zim these days. But right then, he still ran over to the Irken and wiggled up into his lap, sitting there like a happy and hyper child about to watch something on tv. "Okay, all goods Bossa."

Zim shook his head and smiled down at the top of the robot's head, in too good of a mood to push him away, before reaching out and activating several commands on his console. When ready, his clawed hand hovered above a button and he paused, looking over at the others. "This is it, the signal to the nano-bots is ready," he said, feeling so many things at once he was worried his PAK would burn out. "When I press this, it will change... everything. Everything in this part of the Universe, it may even have an effect on Earth. Are you both ready?"

Dib and Gaz looked at each other, seeming to share a moment of sibling understanding before both smiled and said in unison, "fuck em over Zim!"

As he pressed the button, there was a simple beep on the console and a moment of silence before Gir let out a loud whooping sound and jumped off of Zim's lap to start dancing around the bridge. Zim chuckled at the robot's antics and was so distracted for a moment, his mind so full of what he had just set into motion at last, that he didn't notice Dib getting up until the human had wrapped his arms around him from behind, leaning over the back of Zim's chair.

"I hope your not going to be distracted still later on," purred Dib in a voice like rich velvet, nuzzling against the Irken's cheek and down to his neck. "I was planning on treating you..."

Zim couldn't stop the shiver that ran threw his frame and he nuzzled back, "I can't wait," he murmured.

He couldn't wait to see what would happen now, what would happen tomorrow and what would happen every day after that... because now... he was free to do what he wanted, when he wanted. And best of all, Dib would be by his side for all of it.

**The End...**

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So...

I'm thinking of doing an extra chapter or two. Little bits of stuff that happened in the fourteen months inbetween :3 I had a few spare ideas knocking around in my head is all, but its up to you guys ^_^ Do you want more? Or should I give my fingers a rest? ^_^


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